Fake the nation: Cuomo stages 'quarantine' in the Hamptons

FPI / April 23, 2020

When one of their on air personalities was diagnosed with coronavirus, CNN took full advantage. They portrayed Chris Cuomo as a model of how to follow quarantine guidelines as the brave anchor broadcast from the basement of his home in the Hamptons.

On April 20, the network showed video of Cuomo triumphantly emerging from quarantine.

Fake.

Not only had he already left his basement, but the infected Cuomo violated New York's stay-at-home order by traveling to the construction site of his soon-to-be new home in East Hampton, which Business Insider notes is "one of most desirable zip codes among the monied set."

While at the site, Cuomo got into a fight with what he called a “jackass loser fat-tire biker” who dared to ask why an infected Cuomo was breaking quarantine. Without a face mask.

“Who the hell are you?” Cuomo replied. “I can do what I want.”

The Hill's Joe Concha tweeted: “The unnecessary travel from his home in Southampton to his home under construction in East Hampton while still suffering from fever & was therefore infectious needs to be addressed by the anchor on his program. If not, this clip becomes Cuomo’s Brian Williams Iraq moment.”

In 2015, then-NBC News anchor Brian Williams was suspended, and ultimately demoted to MSNBC, after getting caught embellishing events while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003.

New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan noted: "Yes: If we’ve learned anything about Chris Cuomo these past three weeks, it’s that he’s an insecure, self-important, entitled blowhard who suffers in the shadow of his much more accomplished and respected brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo."

The CNN personality's ratings "must be something, though, because CNN just debased itself by posting and broadcasting this video, Chris in sweatpants and a hoodie, at the bottom of his basement stairs, declaring, 'All right, here it is — the official re-entry from the basement,' ” Callahan wrote.

Cuomo goes on to declare “Cleared by CDC.” As Callahan noted, "not by a mere doctor, but the nation’s health protection agency, clearly plenty of free time on its hands. Then he wipes his brow with an open palm as he oh-so-casually announces 'a little sweaty — just worked out, it happens.' ”

See? He’s still a tough guy, despite those nightly freak-outs from his well-appointed, million-dollar basement in the Hamptons.

“This is what I’ve been dreaming of, literally, for weeks,” Cuomo goes on to say.

Callahan noted: "A regular Anne Frank of coronavirus. Then he greets his clearly overjoyed family — his wife, speaking for us all as she puts her arms out and leans way back as if to say, STAY AWAY. His children look on expressionless, but who knows how many takes of this totally spontaneous, non-reunion reunion they’ve had to endure? They’re not SAG members."

At the end of the video, Cuomo’s wife hands him a face mask. “This is for when we go outside,” Cuomo intones. “That’s what we have to do now, all of us in New York.”

Callahan noted: "Sure, Chris. You made it clear last week: You’ll do what you want, say what serves you. And CNN will back this fake, childish nonsense all the way."

Free Press International