Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and CNN’s Chris Cuomo faced off Wednesday night in a heated exchange over how the anchor’s brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, handled COVID-19.
During their time on-air, the two opened up the conversation on whether President Trump went soft on the far-right group the Proud Boys. While Cruz said that he wished Trump had been more clear in his denunciation, he also brought up how hypocritical the press was for not condemning Biden’s 2010 eulogy for former senator and klansman Robert Byrd.
Cuomo then went on a rant of how Trump failed to condemn white supremacy, citing examples of “Charlottesville” and “David Duke.” He denied that he hates the president, insisting that he “respects” him and simply wants better for the country.
“Chris, there was a time when CNN actually cared about being journalistic and talking about facts. Donald Trump broke you guys. I mean, your entire show, your entire network is just about how much you hate Trump,” Cruz said.
Tensions really began to flare when Cruz and Cuomo started discussing coronavirus testing. While Cuomo claimed the governors in Texas, Florida, and Georgia didn’t do enough testing, Cruz points out that their show has to attack those states because they have Republican governors. He notes that they have had much lower death rates than many other parts of the country and that Cuomo’s attacks are purely political.
“Let me say something. There is something disgusting that Democrats are doing, that Joe Biden does, and that you do, which is you try to blame the people who’ve lost their lives on your political enemies and that’s just not right. … It’s not right at all and it’s particularly not right, Chris, when your brother has presided over the state with the highest death rate in the country,” Cruz said.
Texas is ranked 18th in COVID-19 deaths, while New York carries the second-highest COVID-19 deaths per million title, ranking in at 1,709. This is barely behind the number one spot held by New Jersey, which has 1,829.
Cuomo began to launch into a verbal attack on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, when the Senator interrupted and grilled him about the nursing home fiasco his brother caused in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo had implemented a policy for nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients and endanger the lives of tens of thousands of seniors in New York State.
Both the CNN Network and Chris Cuomo have been constantly criticized over the last few months for avoiding the nursing home subject and without offering critical coverage of the policy at play.
“My brother was the first one to say that there was a learning curve and that mistakes were made and they changed things as soon as they could,” Cuomo stated. “But then don’t be a hypocrite about it,” Cruz shot back.
Cuomo took his shot at a gaslighting session, but the Senator shot right back, calling out the media hypocrisy and coverage regarding many of the political issues at hand. It’s no wonder CNN’s ratings have dropped so much. They’ve transitioned from journalism to purely opinionated pieces.
