Chris Cuomo got some support from a surprising source after a video of an angry confrontation he had with someone at a New York bar went viral: Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“I say good for @ChrisCuomo,” Hannity tweeted Monday night. “He’s out with his 9 year old daughter, and his wife, and this guy is being a jackass in front of his family. Imho Chris Cuomo has zero to apologize for. He deserves the apology.”
The video, cellphone footage purportedly taken Sunday night at a bar in Shelter Island, New York, was made public on Monday by a YouTube series called “That’s the Point With Brandon.” It begins in medias res, with Cuomo berating the person filming for apparently calling him “Fredo.” (A reference to the character from “The Godfather.”)
“Punk-ass bitches from the right call me Fredo. My name is Chris Cuomo. I’m an anchor on CNN. Fredo is from The Godfather,” Cuomo says near the beginning of the clip. “They use it as an Italian aspersion. Any of you Italian? It’s an insult to your f—–g people. It’s like the N-word for us.”
Cuomo and the person continued the exchange for several more minutes with Cuomo becoming more heated. “I’ll f—–g ruin your s–t. I’ll f—–g throw you down these stairs like a f—–g punk,” he says at one point. The video continues, with Cuomo expressing further outrage at having been called “Fredo,” before ending abruptly.
The clip was widely shared by conservative Twitter users, which prompted Hannity to express his support for Cuomo.
Cuomo’s network would seem to agree with the Fox News powerhouse. CNN didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap, but in a statement provided to Mediaite it said “Chris Cuomo defended himself when he was verbally attacked with the use of an ethnic slur in an orchestrated setup. We completely support him.” Representatives for Cuomo also didn’t immediately respond.
Watch the Cuomo clip below:
https://twitter.com/THEECONSTITUTI1/status/1161085286152933377