News Nation host Chris Cuomo was seen chuckling during an interview with a TikToker who has Tourette’s Syndrome.
During the interview, Baylen Dupree, 21, who uses her TikTok to raise awareness and teach people about the neurological disorder, told Cuomo about the responses she receives from people who want to “educate” themselves more about Tourette’s Syndrome. At various instances in the interview, her Tourette’s took over as she was speaking.
Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disorder that causes repeated tics, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. The tics can be sudden, uncontrollable sounds or muscle jerks.
“I want people to learn that Tourette’s is a neurological, involuntary motor and vocal disorder,” Dupree said. “F**k off. F**k off. F**k off. I don’t tic 24/7, and there’s a lot of….little baby weiners. F**k off. F**k you, Chris. There’s a lot of things that people don’t understand. Like, people think that cussing is with everyone who has Tourette’s Syndrome, but it’s only in 10 percent of people with Tourette’s.”
When asked by Cuomo whether people have become more understanding about Dupree having Tourette’s Syndrome, or whether they are “dopes” like him who assume she is “acting,” Dupree told him the responses from people are the “same.”
“I think there’s a lot more people that don’t understand what Tourette’s is, and they like to educate themselves more,” Dupree explained. “So, I get thousands of DMs from parents, from teachers, from girls that have been diagnosed with Tourette’s and they had to be kicked out of school for attention-seeking because they rip up their homework or do things like that. I’ve had parents reach out to me, asking me, ‘Oh, my son’s coming home with a girlfriend and his girlfriend has Tourette’s Syndrome.'”
Dupree added, “I also get very evil people that will comment and say, like, go f**k yourself, Chris. Little baby weiners. Banana up your a**. Butter your own biscuit, fat a**,” to which Cuomo could be seen visibly chuckling as she continues to say how people have told her that her “parents deserved to die in a car accident” because she’s faking her condition.
Since being diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome in 2018, Dupree has gone on to earn more than 9 million followers on TikTok as she strives to educate people on living with the neurological disorder.
In an interview with People magazine in May, Dupree revealed that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, her tics increased, adding that it was “isolating” and “depressing.”