Chris Cuomo, CNN’s top news anchor, has said that he is hurt and embarrassed about being suspended indefinitely from his role as primetime host of the channel.
CNN suspended Cuomo on Tuesday after new court documents revealed his role in defending his brother Andrew Cuomo, former New York Governor, over sexual harassment allegations.
“Quick note about the obvious – I’ve been suspended from CNN. It hurts to even say it. It’s embarrassing, but I understand it. And I understand why some people feel the way they do,” Cuomo said on his SiriusXM Satellite Radio show, Let’s Get After It, on Wednesday.
In the first minute of the radio broadcast, Cuomo said, “The last thing I ever wanted to do was compromise any of my colleagues or do anything but help.”
In December 2020, Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Andrew Cuomo, called him out on Twitter for sexually harassing her for years and a criminal complaint was filed against him on October 29 in a New York court.
Following an investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office which found that he had “sexually harassed a number of State employees through unwelcome and unwanted touching, as well as by making numerous offensive and sexually suggestive comments,” Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation in August this year.
However, he has denied all the allegations against him.
His brother, Chris Cuomo aka Christopher C Cuomo, who hosts CNN’s most-watched news show Cuomo Prime Time, admitted in May that he had breached some of the channel’s rules and advised his brother on handling the allegations from the perspective of public relations.
At the time, CNN had “appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second,” said the channel in a statement on Tuesday. However, the new court documents “raise serious questions,” it added.
Released by New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, the new documents revealed text and other messages that show Chris Cuomo had sought to use his own sources in the media to dig out information on the case and the women involved in it.
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“These documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation,” said CNN.
Earlier, Time’s Up, the organisation that promotes the idea of a safe workspace for women, also became embroiled in controversy for its alleged complicity in shrouding the harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo. The organisation, which was founded in the wake of the MeToo movement, following the sexual harassment cases against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, recently announced a complete reset, including the dissolution of its board and the laying off of most of its 25 staff members.