Chris Cuomo, the host of CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” made an incredibly tone-deaf remark during a Tuesday night panel discussion with CNN political analyst David Gregory and former Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
The group was talking about how “moderates” would be received by the Republican Party.
During the segment, Cuomo — the brother of embattled Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — said, “Going forward, they will be savaged by their own. This is a party that will hang with [Republican Florida Rep.] Matt Gaetz, and I’m all for due process, but you know he’d be a dead man on the left because it’s all about optics.”
“But here, they stick with him. They stick with a QAnon kook [a reference to Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia], and they kill [Republican Wyoming Rep.] Liz Cheney. So, if you’re a moderate, if you put your toe in the pool Charlie, aren’t you DMW — Dead Man Walking?”
If he was a Democrat, Cuomo said of Gaetz, “he’d be a dead man on the left. Because it’s all about optics.” pic.twitter.com/Qag7ZOGeQJ
— libby emmons (@libbyemmons) May 5, 2021
So Chris Cuomo thinks the unproven allegations swirling around Gaetz are so serious that if he were a Democrat, he’d be a dead man. Because Democrats adhere to such high ethical standards? Does Cuomo possess even a shred of self-awareness?
Let’s compare Gaetz’s situation to that of the CNN host’s brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
By March 30, Andrew Cuomo had been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct by at least nine women. A man who would put women in such uncomfortable positions, especially when several of them were his subordinates, is disrespectful, rude and quite simply a pig.
That’s bad enough, but the governor’s (arguably) more egregious deed involved his March 2020 order to force nursing homes to take COVID-infected patients into their facilities, knowing very well how vulnerable most residents were and how easily the virus could be spread.
After thousands of elderly patients died as a result of Cuomo’s foolish decision, he misrepresented the number of actual COVID-19 nursing home deaths.
Before any of this was exposed, Cuomo accepted an Emmy award for his strong leadership during the pandemic and wrote a book entitled, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Calls for his resignation filled the airwaves in March. New York’s Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand issued a joint statement asking him to resign.
The governor refused to comply. He has “toughed it out,” former President Bill Clinton-style.
On March 30, The New York Times broke the bombshell story that Gaetz was under investigation by the DOJ for the possible violation of federal sex trafficking laws.
The DOJ is looking into whether he may have engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel with him. It is illegal, The Times informed its readers, “to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value.” The encounters are said to have occurred about two years ago.
The Times also wrote that Gaetz is a subject, rather than the target, of the investigation. The outlet’s sources are identified as “three people briefed on the matter.”
So, what’s behind the MOAB The Times dropped on Matt Gaetz?
As it turns out, the DOJ is investigating the congressman. But, we’ve been around the block a time or two and know that Democrats have made a sport out of opening bogus investigations into Republicans for political expediency.
Considering the fact that Gaetz has fiercely, openly and repeatedly defended former President Donald Trump against the treasure trove of false allegations Democrats leveled at him, and made some enemies in the DOJ along the way, we would be wise to reserve judgment.
Gaetz has vehemently denied the allegations. Until the DOJ either formally charges or exonerates Gaetz, he remains in political limbo. You can’t ask a congressman to resign until he’s been accused of something.
So, given that Andrew Cuomo is still the governor after nine women have publicly accused him of sexual harassment or misconduct and the New York attorney general is issuing public reports about his efforts to underreport nursing home deaths, I’d say that the Democrats’ higher ethical standards Chris Cuomo alluded to during the panel discussion exist only in his imagination.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.