CNN is defending anchorman Chris Cuomo over a video of a confrontation in which Mr. Cuomo goes into a profane tirade and threatens to attack a person who got his name wrong.
In the video, which had received more than 540,000 views in its first 90 minutes since being posted Monday evening, an unidentified man calls Mr. Cuomo “Fredo,” which prompts the CNN journalist to to say that only “f—-ass bitches from the right call me Fredo.”
In the 107 seconds of the video, Mr. Cuomo uses forms of the f-word 24 times and uses the s-word meaning “excrement” five times.
A man in NY yesterday approached CNN’s Chris Cuomo and called him “Fredo”
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 13, 2019
Cuomo: “You’re going to have a problem”
Man: “What are you going to do about it?”
Cuomo: “I’ll fuckin ruin your shit. I’ll fucking throw you down these stairs”
Credit: “THAT’S THE POINT with Brandon” pic.twitter.com/4iWwzaSQpF
Mr. Cuomo insisted that “Fredo,” a reference to the weak brother in the “Godfather” films (Mr. Cuomo’s brother Andrew is governor of New York and father Mario had been), is an anti-Italian slur.
“They use it as an Italian aspersion,” he said. “It’s a f—ing insult to your people, an insult to your f—ing people. It’s like the n-word for us. That’s a cool f—ing thing” to say?
After saying that the other person was “gonna have a f—ing problem,” Mr. Cuomo threatened violent assault.
“I’ll f—ing ruin your s—t. I’ll f—ing throw you down these stairs like a f—ing punk,” he snarled, going on to invite the Fredo-user twice to “take a f—ing swing.”
CNN was completely fine with that.
“Chris Cuomo defended himself when he was verbally attacked with the use of an ethnic slur in an orchestrated setup. We completely support him,” wrote Matt Dornic, a CNN vice president and spokesman.
Mr. Dornic was replying to Donald Trump Jr., who had retweeted the video and said he assumed the network wouldn’t comment because it’s not a real news organization.
SEE ALSO: Sean Hannity defends Chris Cuomo after ‘fredo’ tirade
In response to Mr. Trump also insisting “Fredo” isn’t “the N word for Italians, it just means you’re the dumb brother,” Mr. Dornic trolled the president’s family.
“Speaking of dumb brothers…. cc: @EricTrump,” he wrote.
However, Mr. Cuomo didn’t always insist that “Fredo” was the equivalent of the N-word.
CNN commentator Ana Navarro used the word in a January clip that Mr. Cuomo’s own show promoted on Twitter at the time and began making the rounds again Monday night.
“@ananavarro slams Don Jr. for likening border wall to zoo fence: He’s an ’entitled, rich, spoiled little brat whose only call to fame is being his daddy’s son.’ ’[D]addy kept Fredo back home … Who cares what [he] says. I don’t want to talk about that entitled little brat,’” Mr. Cuomo’s show tweeted at the time.
The clip showed no reaction of disapproval from Mr. Cuomo at the use of “Fredo” to describe the younger Mr. Trump.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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