During the transition between Cuomo Prime Time and CNN Tonight on Wednesday night, host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo brazenly claimed that white people are devoid of empathy and lack the ability to “see humanity” in black people—specifically, in George Floyd. The identity-obsessed anchor went on to allege that white Americans are complacent and take “comfort” in being racist and stereotyping others.
During the handoff, Don Lemon and Cuomo talked about how compelling and emotional the witness testimony was in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. Cuomo began the virtue signaling by generalizing and bashing white people for being ignorant and insensitive while formulating opinions:
“There’s an amazing opportunity for the majority, today, in watching the trial of George Floyd’s murder. And very often white people come to a conclusion that, you know what, I don’t really understand this, I don’t live it, I don’t feel it. But often it ends there because it’s hard to get that different perspective.”
“I think it's really instructive for me and for a lot of white people,” Cuomo concluded, “people in the majority to see how many people of color who were standing by watching this happen and having an emotional connection to the distress and the pain that resolved itself in guilt in them.”
Lemon, being the race-baiting propagandist he is, took Cuomo’s bait and accused white Americans of not seeing blacks as human beings.
Cuomo doubled down and even took it a step further by asserting that he has far less “faith” in white people to exercise compassion than Lemon does:
“I think that you're putting more faith in people's ability to do this than I have right now. See the humanity in George Floyd, well that requires humanity in the seer.”
Cuomo went on to malign law-abiding and police-supporting citizens for not doing more to end “racism” or “systemic injustice.” The self-absorbed news host then claimed that anyone willing to afford Chauvin the presumption of innocence is complicit in perpetuating institutional inequality:
“You know, we often say the minority can't change racism or systemic injustice, the majority has to. But does it want to? Isn't there a convenience, isn't there a comfort in being able to excuse anything that an officer does by saying, you're anti-police, you choose to see that. And you don't choose to see what is in such abundance in this trial right now, which is just a pain of people who feel that there but for the grace. And my question is I really hope that people are watching what's happening right now not through the lens of politics but through the lens of people. And do you see that pain, don't you want to stop that pain, don't you want less of that pain. I'll listen to what you have to say.”
It’s worth noting that neither Lemon nor Cuomo (who actually attended law school) urged viewers to consider Chauvin innocent until proven guilty. Instead, they said emphatically told each other "I love you," and said goodbye.
Chris Cuomo’s relentless and awkward virtue signaling was brought to you, in part, by LegalZoom. Contact this advertiser and others via the Media Research Center’s Conservatives Fight Back website, conveniently linked here.
Please click “Expand” to read the entire March 31 transcript:
CHRIS CUOMO: I want to thank you for watching. "CNN Tonight" with the big star D. Lemon starts right now. There's an amazing opportunity for the majority, today, in watching the trial of George Floyd's murder. And very often white people come to a conclusion that, you know what, I don't really understand this, I don't live it, I don't feel it. But often it ends there because it's hard to get that different perspective. It is an abundance right now in what we're seeing. I think it's really instructive for me and for a lot of white people, people in the majority to see how many people of color who were standing by watching this happen and having an emotional connection to the distress and the pain that resolved itself in guilt in them.
DON LEMON: You know why -- you know why that is. It's because -- I'll tell you a story. You remember Alton Sterling, this was in Baton Rouge 2016, July 2016, got into a scuffle with police, ended up dying. And everyone was like, you know, he had a gun, it was this, it was that, OK? And so, my, you know my family is from there. So, my nieces call me, and they said, that was Mr. Alton. He is always standing out in front of the video -- in front of the convenience store and he sells the CDs. We know him, we see him. So, to them because it was near where they grew up, he was a human being. He was not threatening. You know, Uncle Don, sometimes we would see him and we didn’t want to buy CDs from him because, you know, we have our own music and whatever but we would just say, Mr. Sterling, here's some money, whatever, not threatening to them.
A human being, they saw his humanity, they saw him as a person who was their neighbor. Right? Oftentimes, when you don't have a relationship with people like that, you don't know them, you don't see their humanity. So, to you it's other. And listen, you know where we live. There are people who have issues, people we see all the time. People who go that's Mr. Williams, he's kind of, you know, whatever, but we see them as humans. They see people, people who see their own or their neighbors as human. And it's about time especially as you said for white people to see black people as human even if you can't -- why can't you relate to them? Because oftentimes you don't interact with them. So, you may see George Floyd as this character who you see as criminal, but to the people who live in that neighborhood he's one of them. He's one of their neighbors. They know his story. And he may have -- he may not be the perfect human being. Who is? I'm not perfect. Are you, Chris?
CUOMO: I couldn't be any further from it.
LEMON: Okay, so then George Floyd isn't perfect either. And I know a lot of people who came back from various wars, right, served their country, became addicted if you look at what happened during the Gulf Wars, if you look at what happened during Vietnam. A lot of people came back with issues and then became addicted. And what we learned is that we should see their humanity. When they come back here, we should treat them with respect. Why can't we treat people who have issues and failings and addictions with respect instead of looking at them as criminal?
If someone passes -- how much is a life worth? If someone -- let's say George Floyd passed a $20 bill, fraudulent $20 bill, is that worth his life? Is that worth coming up, charging up to him with a gun, get out of the car for a $20 bill? Is it worth it?
So, we have to start seeing people’s humanity and stop trying to find evidence of other -- otherism every time. Well, what was wrong with him, what did he do, why didn't he pay attention to the police, what does he -- instead of saying, you know, that guy’s a human being. Even if he was passing a $20 bill is that -- is that a death sentence? And think about the people in your own life who have failings, who have flaws, who are addicted -- every addiction. Every single addiction -- if you go to therapy, if you go to any sort of addiction therapy or anything, they will tell you every single addiction is the same, whether it's drugs, legal or illegal, alcohol, food, sex, all addiction is the same.
There is something underlying either something in the brain or some sort of failing or something that happened in your life that triggered it. And so, we have to stop stigmatizing people and not seeing them as human because they have failings. We all have failings. George Floyd had failings -- had failings. But please, people, look at him as a human being and not some other thing that you don't know anything about, you don't know his story. He's not one of your neighbors. Think about one of your neighbors who has problems. Would you want them to be treated the way George Floyd was treated, or a family member? I don't think so. And that's what I'm going to talk about in my opening, but go on. Sorry to pontificate.
CUOMO: No. I would have cut you if I didn't feel it was valuable. I just, I think that you're putting more faith in people's ability to do this than I have right now. See the humanity in George Floyd, well that requires humanity in the seer. What do you want to see? What do you want to be about?
LEMON: Exactly.
CUOMO: You know, we often say the minority can't change racism or systemic injustice, the majority has to. But does it want to? Isn't there a convenience, isn't there a comfort in being able to excuse anything that an officer does by saying, you're anti-police, you choose to see that. And you don't choose to see what is in such abundance in this trial right now, which is just a pain of people who feel that there but for the grace. And my question is I really hope that people are watching what's happening right now not through the lens of politics but through the lens of people. And do you see that pain, don't you want to stop that pain, don't you want less of that pain. I'll listen to what you have to say. As always, D. Lemon, I love you.
LEMON: I love you, too. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. So, let's talk more about this. Chris, I'll see you. This is “CNN Tonight,” I'm Don Lemon. And so, having said all of that, this is what I talk about all the time. This is what I've been about forever. Maybe you just didn't realize it. I don't know. Hopefully you do now. But when we look at this, what's happening in Minnesota now, America is on trial. America is on trial. I mean it, and I want you to hear me out here. This is not just about what black people think about what happened to George Floyd. This is about America. This is about you listening to that gut-wrenching testimony from people in the neighborhood, people who don't see George Floyd as some other thing. It's about those people telling their story -- their stories, his story. This is about a human being, about a real human being with all -- with all his flaws.
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