CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was reportedly advising his brother, Andrew Cuomo, in some capacity, prior to the New York governor’s stunning resignation Tuesday, despite such counsel being a conflict of interest that the Cuomo Prime Time star has already apologized to his viewers for and—along with CNN itself—acknowledged as inappropriate. As the governor faced a chorus of calls to resign this past week over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women, he “sought advice from his brother,” the New York Times reported Monday. The Washington Post, also on Monday, included the CNN host among the governor’s “few advisers” he “continues to confer with.”
Chris Cuomo was apparently one of few people left for the governor to turn to in the wake of New York attorney general Letitia James’ damning sexual harassment report released last week, with top aide Melissa DeRosa exiting after being implicated in the findings. Also implicated in the report was Chris Cuomo himself, identified both as someone interviewed by the independent investigators and, as the Post revealed back in May, part of the support group helping strategize for the embattled governor. The report amplified the journalistic ethics questions raised by the Post’s reporting with documents providing new insight into Chris Cuomo’s crisis-management role.
The Cuomo brothers’ recurring schtick that CNN questionably embraced at the beginning of the pandemic has proved a headache for the network since March, when sexual harassment claims first emerged against the governor; the Cuomo Prime Time host then recused himself from covering his brother—despite having done just that when the New York Democrat was riding high months earlier. Then, after the Post in May reported that Chris Cuomo had participated in conference calls with the governor and governor’s staff to help craft a public response to the allegations against his brother, he apologized to his audience and promised such conversations “will not happen again.” CNN didn’t punish the host, though the network did say “it was inappropriate to engage in conversations that included members of the Governor’s staff” and that the anchor would “not participate in such conversations going forward.”
Those statements have been among the prior comments that the network directed Vanity Fair back to last week in response to questions about if or how CNN is addressing the new details about their anchor included in the attorney general’s report. The Cuomo Prime Time star—who is currently on vacation for a reportedly pre-planned “birthday week”—did not once acknowledge the bombshell report on his show last week. Asked Tuesday to comment on new reports in the Times and Post that Chris Cuomo is still advising his brother, a CNN spokesperson again pointed back to past statements.
The governor responded last week to the allegations against him with a defiance reportedly stunning to even current and former staffers. He denied touching anyone inappropriately, despite the credible and often disturbing sexual-harassment accounts detailed in the report. “CNN needs to commission a report of its own to determine just how its star anchor fit into this sexual harassment pushback effort,” the Post’s Erik Wemple wrote Monday, citing the involvement of outside advisers in helping craft the governor’s response—as his brother did earlier this year—and the extent that this group’s “loyalties” to Cuomo helped enable the toxic environment where his harassment thrived. “That’s far more than an optics problem for CNN,” Wemple noted.
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