Chris Cuomo Tries to Clarify What He Meant by 'I Was Going to Kill Everybody' and It Goes Terribly Wrong
Last week, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo casually mentioned that he was “going to kill everybody” after he was fired by the cable outlet, and this week he is digging his hole even deeper by accusing everyone of taking him out of context.
Cuomo, who was a principal anchor for CNN from 2013 to 2021 and now works for NewsNation, recently told the equally disgraced former Donald Trump pressman, Anthony Scaramucci, that he worked through some violent impulses after he was fired from CNN in 2021.
“I still fail, and I have learned to accept it. I had to accept because I was gonna kill everybody, including myself,” he told Scaramucci during the “Open Book” podcast.
“Things can consume you,” Cuomo added. “Italians are so passionate.”
.@ChrisCuomo tells me on this week’s Open Book: ‘I’m very flawed, there’s damage… I still fail and I have learned to accept it. I had to accept, because I was gonna kill everybody, including myself.”
Don’t miss our conversation 👇https://t.co/h1Zcd9emOv
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) February 15, 2023
Chris Cuomo After Firing: “I was going to kill everybody and myself” pic.twitter.com/6fLetIRwQg
— Frisch Report (@FrischReport) February 15, 2023
Those are direct quotes, of course. He said them straight out. But now Cuomo is back on social media trying to accuse the rest of the media of purposefully misquoting him to make him look bad.
In one post he accused the New York Post of misquoting him, and said, “See the single quotes? That means characterization not direct quote…the post doing what it does.”
See the single quotes? That means characterization not direct quote…the post doing what it does. The truth: We all struggle; we all have to deal with upset and anger…I am no different. That is the point…you get it…they twist it…so it goes. https://t.co/hJKmKIYfKv
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) February 15, 2023
Amusingly, Twitter slapped that tweet with a fact check, rightfully noting that there is no such practice of using a single quote mark when misquoting someone. It is a common practice in the media to use single quotation marks in headlines instead of double quotation marks. But it has nothing at all to do with the accuracy or lack thereof in the quoted words.
This is amazing. A fact check of @ChrisCuomo’s ridiculous walk back of a verbatim quote saying he was going to “kill everybody, including myself.” pic.twitter.com/LrTdun5VOF
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 19, 2023
As Rob Eno noted, the Associated Press Stylebook, a guide that many journalists use to govern the way they write and the style they use for journalism, even notes that single quotes are used in headlines.
Pretty sure that’s just AP style Chris. As a journalist I would have thought you understood that. the @APStylebook says to use single quotes in headlines. The @nypost used double quotes and linked to audio in it’s written article. https://t.co/XskvHbhWsb pic.twitter.com/7CEXDqCjF0
— Rob Eno (@Robeno) February 15, 2023
Unsurprisingly, many eyebrows were raised about Cuomo’s attempt to blame the media for misquoting him.
Confused. How is the Actual Quote meaningfully different? I mean, I’d understand if you were being hyperbolic. But that’s not your excuse here. https://t.co/2L1ZdUga0M
— Chicks On The Right (@chicksonright) February 15, 2023
Is this more accurate for you? https://t.co/61liJwAzQJ
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 16, 2023
There is actual audio of you saying this. It is a DIRECT QUOTE. https://t.co/b02MW0zyyk
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 16, 2023
Others also jumped on the absurd single quote marks claim Cuomo made:
What an amazing claim and fact check. Come for the lies, stay for the professional journalist and former CNN anchor not knowing what quotation marks mean.
— Zac Bissonnette (@ZacBissonnette) February 19, 2023
He is denying facts and people fall for it. Meanwhile single quotes are always used in headlines, journalism 101.
— Emily Miller (@emilymiller) February 16, 2023
Wrong. Anyone who has been a journalist knows single quotes are used in headlines. No quotes if not a direct quote. @nypost
— Emily Miller (@emilymiller) February 16, 2023
The 52-year-old Cuomo had other things to say during Scaramucci’s podcast, too.
Cuomo also admitted he had made a lot of mistakes in his life, but losing his job with CNN, or as he put it, getting “s***-canned,” sent him to therapy, Page Six reported.
“There is damage that is relatable. There is damage that is unrelatable to people that I have to deal with, that I am working on,” Cuomo added.
Of course, Chris Cuomo was fired after CNN began investigating his past of using his programs to help his brother Andrew smooth over his sexual harassment allegation problems that befell Andrew when he was governor of New York, troubles that eventually led to the elder Cuomo’s resignation from the Empire State’s top office.
But during that investigation, CNN claimed to have uncovered harassment allegations against Chris, too, and that was the final straw. CNN let him go in December of 2021.
Regardless, his attempt to smear the media for actually quoting him accurately is prime Cuomo finger-pointing.
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