Tuesday, CNN’s Chris Cuomo addressed the controversy surrounding a viral video of him yelling at someone for calling him Fredo, tweeting that he appreciates “all the support” but “I should be better.”
“Appreciate all the support but – truth is I should be better than the guys baiting me. This happens all the time these days. Often in front of my family. But there is a lesson: no need to add to the ugliness; I should be better than what I oppose,” tweeted Cuomo, the brother of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and son of former Governor Mario Cuomo.
Some of that support came from Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who said Monday that Cuomo had “zero to apologize for.” CNN also threw their support behind the primetime anchor, issuing a statement that 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.”
“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 that went viral Monday. “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.”
At one point, the anchor is heard saying, “I’ll f—g ruin your s-t. I’ll f—g throw you down these stairs like a f—g punk.”