President Trump has described CNN’s Don Lemon as the “dumbest man on television” and Chris Cuomo has received the nickname “Fredo” (a reference to the dumb brother in The Godfather) from the public. Well, both men proved they deserved their titles during Wednesday's handoff between PrimeTime and CNN Tonight, when neither man could accurately identify an animal on the mental acuity test they were mocking the President for doing well on.
“Person, woman, man, camera, TV. Can you remember that,” Lemon sprung on Cuomo, to his great confusion. Lemon noted Trump had bragged about acing the test in an interview (with the Fox News Channel's Dr. Marc Siegel), but shared his suspicion the President was lying. “But there's some question about when this test was given and who gave it to him,” he said.
After Cuomo quipped that the test “looks like something for middle school,” Lemon stumbled through suggesting Trump took the test because others were worried about a mental decline. “Well, you take that when – Usually – Listen, I'm not a doctor and I’m going to let Dr. Reiner explain it in a little bit. But usually when there's some issue or some concern about, you know, your cognitive ability,” he hinted.
“You’re like burying the lede here,” Cuomo tagged on.
A few moments after Cuomo admitted to having stuck in mental “fog” as of late, in which he forgets words (he has previously attributed this to his battle with coronavirus), he asked a simple question about another part of testing sheet: “What were the animal shapes?”
From there, their lack of mental acuity was exposed as Lemon, at first, misidentified one of three animals (lion, rhino, camel) on the sheet:
CUOMO: What were the animal shapes?
LEMON: Well, it’s a lion, a hippo, and a camel.
CUOMO: Isn’t that a rhino in the middle?
LEMON: A rhino or a hippo.
CUOMO: You don't even know a hippo from a rhino?
LEMON: A rhino. Sorry.
CUOMO: You got no acuity, son!
“I'm looking at it backwards! I'm looking at it backwards,” Lemon proclaimed in his defense. “I gotta take you to the zoo,” Cuomo joked.
But Cuomo himself needed to go to a zoo because he started calling the rhino an elephant! Here was that mental decline:
CUOMO: You don’t know a rhino from an elephant.
LEMON: Sorry. I'm looking at it backwards.
CUOMO: I gotta take you to the zoo.
LEMON: Yeah, there you go. Memory, face, velvet, church, daisy, red.
CUOMO: What does it mean if you don’t know an elephant from a rhino?
LEMON: An elephant?
CUOMO: What did you say? A hippo? You thought the rhino was a hippo?
Come on Fredo! You were the one who pointed out it was a rhino!
In an attempt to help bolster his argument he had been “looking at it backwards,” Lemon turned the testing sheet around to the blank side and held it up to the camera. “You can't really see that,” he said, sounding all defeated as an awkward silence took over.
This flop of a dunk on Trump was made possible by lucrative sponsorships from BMW, and Swiffer. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Tonight
July 22, 2020
10:00:41 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: Person, woman, man, camera, TV. Can you remember that?
CHRIS CUOMO: Person, woman, man, camera, TV?
LEMON: Yeah.
CUOMO: What does that mean?
LEMON: That's what we're trying to figure out. Because the President talked about his acuity test tonight and he said he can remember “person, woman, man camera, TV.” And no one had ever done that before. Because later they came back to him and he was able to answer it again. And so he aced it. But there's some question about when this test was given and who gave it to him.
CUOMO: What is it?
LEMON: It’s cog—you know, he said it was part of this, you know, the conative test. When you do the--
CUOMO: No. When do you take that? That looks like something for middle school.
LEMON: Well, you take that when – Usually – Listen, I'm not a doctor and I’m going to let Dr. Reiner explain it in a little bit. But usually when there's some issue or some concern about, you know, your cognitive ability. So…
CUOMO: Oh. You’re like burying the lede here.
LEMON: Well, what do you mean?
CUOMO: And what about you jumping me on TV? What if I didn't remember?
[Laughter]
LEMON: Person, woman, man, camera…
CUOMO: I understand. TV.
LEMON: TV. Maybe it's easy for us cause we’re, you know…
CUOMO: Well, now I'm nervous about it. It’s the only thing going through my head right now.
[Laughter]
LEMON: You’re wondering if there are going to be other tests coming up?
CUOMO: I'll tell you what. And I’ll tell you why. And it just proves how not nice you are. I am not 100 percent in the melon.
LEMON: I know.
CUOMO: I do not have -- I have fog. I have – not word recall issues. But I say the wrong things sometimes. Especially when I'm tired. I know everybody is saying, “who doesn't.” I don’t. this is new for me. So, I don't know why he was getting an acuity test. Hopefully, you know, it's just something that’s routine.
LEMON: Ha. Hopefully.
CUOMO: I’ve never even heard of an acuity test.
LEMON: Well, it's right here. It’s cognitive-- It's cognitive assessment. It’s a Montreal Cognitive Assessment. It’s MOCA.
CUOMO: What were the animal shapes?
LEMON: Well, it’s a lion, a hippo, and a camel.
CUOMO: Isn’t that a rhino in the middle?
LEMON: A rhino or a hippo.
CUOMO: You don't even know a hippo from a rhino?
LEMON: A rhino. Sorry.
CUOMO: You got no acuity, son!
[Laughter]
CUOMO: You got no acuity!
LEMON: I'm looking at it backwards! I'm looking at it backwards!
CUOMO: You don’t know a rhino from an elephant.
LEMON: Sorry. I'm looking at it backwards.
CUOMO: I gotta take you to the zoo.
LEMON: Yeah, there you go. Memory, face, velvet, church, daisy, red.
CUOMO: What does it mean if you don’t know an elephant from a rhino?
LEMON: An elephant?
CUOMO: What did you say? A hippo? You thought the rhino was a hippo?
LMEON: I was just looking at it backwards.
CUOMO: What does that mean?
LEMON: Lookie, here. This is how I’m looking at it (turns paper to blank side). You can't really see that.
(…)
