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Chris Cuomo's ridiculous profanity-laced tirade has become a viral video but his bosses at CNN still defended him.
Too bad Rep. Michael Grimm didn't get the same support from his party when he lost his temper at an intrusive reporter in 2014.
Both men had had their temper flare ups exposed on video but only one incident made any kind of sense. Let's review the circumstances:
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was approached by a man asking for a photograph when Cuomo was at an event with his wife and 9-year old daughter. The man apparently unwittingly called him Fredo because Rush Limbaugh always refers to him by that name.
Cuomo exploded and the man explained (according to an article by Frank Chung in Australia):
"I thought that's who you were," the man says to Cuomo. Cuomo responds, "No, punk-ass b**ches from the right call me Fredo. My name's Chris Cuomo, I'm an anchor on CNN. Fredo is from the Godfather, he was that weak brother. They use it as an Italian aspersion. Are you Italian? It's a f***ing insult to your people. It's like the N-word for us. Is that a cool f***ing thing?"
One has to wonder if his daughter is used to her father's foul language. Then Cuomo's temper tantrum proceeded to threaten violence:
"The man tells Cuomo he's a "much more reasonable person than you seem to be on television", prompting Cuomo to threaten him. "If you want to play then we'll f***ing play," he says. "If you've got something you want to say about what I do on television then f***ing say it."
He continues, "You're going to have a big f***ing problem. It's a little different on TV. Don't f***ing insult me like that. You called me Fredo, like I call you ‘punk b**ch'. I'll f***ing ruin your s***. I'll f***ing throw you down these stairs like a f***ing punk."
What makes his outrage so ridiculous is comparing the name Fredo to the n-word. Especially since Cuomo himself referred himself to Fredo in a 2010 radio interview.
That name is an insult to weaker, dumber brothers not to all Italians so it's probably been a sore point to Chris for some time.
Still, he should have taken his own advice that he once gave to conservatives who are always confronted by hostile strangers. He advised them to ‘just walk away."
In 2014 when then Congressman Michael Grimm lost his cool and threatened to throw a reporter off the balcony, Cuomo called his actions, "bizarre" and the worst kind of behavior for a legislator. It's worth noticing that Michael Grimm had been embattled in the media for some time and he was being targeted unfairly for his fundraiser's misdeeds.
Michael Grimm was actually a good representative for his districts in Staten Island and Brooklyn. He voted for the PRENDA Act and after the Dems defeated it he said: "I find it disappointing that legislation to outlaw the barbaric practice of sex-selective abortions failed to pass the House of Representatives. Beyond my religious and pro-life views, I believe to end the life of an unborn baby girl simply because her parents were hoping for a boy is absolutely disgusting and horrific, not to mention the ultimate betrayal of women's rights." He worked tirelessly after the Sandy storm devastated the residents but he made a very serious error soon after he entered Congress in 2010. He told the truth.
In 2012 I wrote a column for Irish Examiner USA comparing his problems to a character in a classic film:
"The first time I watched the Jimmy Stewart classic film, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", I was too young to appreciate how very insightful it was in describing how things work in our government. Many years later after joining our local tea party and getting involved in sending Michael Grimm to represent us in Congress, I was struck by how that movie presaged what he would expect in D.C. In that film, Mr. Stewart plays an idealistic young man, Jefferson Smith, who encounters a powerful enemy in the media when he refuses to co-sponsor legislature that he finds to be against the public interests. When he complains to his mentor, Senator Paine, he learns that compromise is the price one pays to remain in power for so many years. A press tycoon, Jim Taylor, controls Congress and is able to manipulate public opinion. When Sen. Paine tells Taylor that Smith will not cooperate he responds, "Aah, he'll never get started. I'll make public opinion out there within five hours! I've done it all my life. I'll blacken this punk so that he'll - You leave public opinion to me."
At a tea party Townhall meeting he dared to reveal what he had learned in D.C. "Nobody here cares," he said referring to either side of the aisle. "Getting reelected is their first priority."
It didn't take long for the mainstream media to do the bidding of the left and the GOP Elite did nothing to save Grimm.
"In July, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee distributed WANTED ads calling for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Rep. Grimm for illegal activity involving his 2010 campaign. An Israeli, Ofer Biton, who had helped fundraise for his 2010 campaign was just arrested in August. News of Biton's arrest splashed on the front page of the Staten Island Advance and the article speculated that Grimm's reelection might be imperiled. It's not unusual for political fundraising campaigns to attract unscrupulous individuals but rarely do these illicit activities directly involve the candidates. Not much front page press coverage occurred when Hillary Clinton's fundraiser, Hassan Nemazee, was arrested for $74million fraud."
Ultimately, Grimm's relentless enemies won and on July 17, 2015, the former Gulf War marine and FBI agent was sentenced to eight months in prison for tax evasion. He began his prison term on September 22, 2015.
After serving seven months he was released and in 2017 ran against Rep. Donovan to regain his seat. While getting a large number of supporters, including myself, President Trump endorsed Donovan under the impression that he had voted for the GOP tax bill.
Donovan hadn't but never corrected that mistake and Grimm lost.
Chris Cuomo made a fool of himself and actually confirmed his Fredo identity. I voted for Grimm three times and the last time he was a convicted felon.
I stand by that decision and hope that more candidates of his caliber fill the vacancies in Congress left by the fleeing RINOs in the swamp. Remember that, girlies. There is no greater power than that.
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