On Monday, CNN “New Day” anchor Chris Cuomo paid tribute to his father and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who died on New Year’s Day.
“Pop’s body is gone; I know because I counted out his pulse until his heart fell silent,” Cuomo said in a tribute video aired on the morning show. “So now his baggy brown eyes, solid grip of soft, thick fingers, oaken body— they’re all gone…but what was most important about my father, and to him, has passed on. Passed on as in still exists, just in a different way.”
His tribute told the story of Cuomo the politician and Cuomo the man, focusing on his 1984 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention and his knack for trying to help those of lesser means.
“We are here to help as many as we can, in the best way we can, and that means protecting freedom, especially freedom from oppression,” Cuomo said of his father’s core beliefs.
Watch the video below.