Chris Cuomo calls out Trump's 'bulls***' following president's 'cheerleader' comment

Stephen Proctor
Updated ·3 min read

On Tuesday night, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who is currently broadcasting from his basement as he battles COVID-19, skewered President Trump over the excuse he gave earlier in the day for his lack of candor with the American people at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak.

“You have to understand, I’m a cheerleader for this country. I don’t want to create havoc and shock and everything else,” Trump said at the coronavirus task force briefing when asked about his early downplaying of the dangers of the virus. He later added, “I’m not going to go out and start screaming ‘This could happen. This could happen.’”

“That’s exactly what leadership is,” Cuomo responded. “Anybody can tell people what they want to hear and make it easy. And then you know what you get? Exactly where we are right now. That was the most asinine statement of leadership I have ever heard.”

Though Trump recently claimed that he “always” took the coronavirus seriously, in actuality he downplayed the threat of the virus for several weeks as the number of new cases continued to grow. And on one of the deadliest days in the U.S. since the outbreak, Cuomo gave his interpretation of the president’s justification.

“That is clear thinking from him,” Cuomo said. “‘I’m a cheerleader. So I am going to lie to you about the realities that your parents, your loved ones and your kids face. I’m not going to prepare the way I should ’cause it reinforces the bulls*** I’m telling you, and I’m going to hope that you’re OK with it.’” Cuomo added, “We’ve got to do better than that. This president must do better than that. The good news is, he can. The bad news is, he refuses to. And that, I have no answer for.”

Cuomo also took a swipe at the unrealistic assertion Trump had made just two weeks earlier.

“He said we’d be good by Easter,” Cuomo said. “On Easter Sunday, you know what? I will be sick, and I will be sick for some time to come. And somebody telling me something else doesn’t make me feel any better, it makes me feel worse about them. I demand the truth for my situation. I demand the truth for you as well. Again, too many of us have parents, loved ones and kids in the balance.”

Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.

Watch John Oliver rip GOP governors and Jared Kushner for their responses to the coronavirus:

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