CNN host Chris Cuomo may have been accused of sexual harassment, Tucker Carlson claimed after airing secret audio of his cable news rival Tuesday night on Fox News.
Newsweek reports Carlson played a clip that was purportedly recorded by President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, during a private conversation with Cuomo. The “Cuomo Prime Time” host and younger brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is allegedly heard saying other reporters have contacted him asking if he was accused of sexual harassment.
“I’m always careful when I talk to media, you know,” Chris Cuomo allegedly says. “Do you know how many f---ing phone calls I’ve gotten from people at ABC who say that reporters are calling and lying about me and trying to get stories about me when I was at ABC? Guys calling and saying, ‘I heard he was the Charlie Rose of ABC, he used to invite women to his hotel and open his bathrobe.’ Do I look like the kind of f---ing guy who’s gotta do that?”
“Sure, why not?” Cohen allegedly replies.
“I always told you,” Cuomo adds, “the media is not your friend.”
Cuomo left ABC News in 2013 after previously anchoring “20/20” and “Good Morning America.” He has not been publicly accused of any misconduct, but Carlson suggested multiple women have made claims against him.
“Chris Cuomo is on television,” the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host said Tuesday. “Chris Cuomo could bench press your Subaru. Open bathrobes are for losers. But you know who is a loser, big time? All those women who keep accusing Chris Cuomo of sexual harassment.”
“Now, if women made those claims against you, Chris Cuomo might very well denounce you on his TV show, call for your firing, call for your banishment from decent society,” Carlson continued. “These are women making the charges, after all. You must believe women. Women’s voices must be heard.”
Carlson, who was criticized last year for past comments about women and statutory rape, was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit in July. Reporter Cathy Areu accused Carlson of making sexual advances toward her after a 2018 appearance on his television program, and then allegedly retaliating against her by reducing her appearances on his Fox News show.
Cohen, who publishes his new book “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump” next week, denounced Carlson and said he did not give Fox News permission to air the recording.
“The only people in possession of these recordings are me, @DOJ, @POTUS & Trump Org,” Cohen tweeted. “I did not give this recording or authorization for its use to @FoxNews or anyone. @POTUS and cronies violated my First amendment rights and now this; all to discredit me and my book. What’s next?”
President Trump seized on the leaked audiotape, calling for Cuomo to be fired.
“Will Fredo be fired by Fake News @CNN? He speaks with great disrespect about women, and it will only get worse. Fredo’s Ratings are bad, so this is the time. Always terrible to speak to sleazebags, especially when you are being recorded. CNN has no choice, Fredo must go!” Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning.
Cuomo clashed with a man who called him “Fredo” in a video that went viral last year, famously saying the name -- a reference to Vito Corleone’s son from the 1972 mafia movie “The Godfather” -- is as offensive to Italians and Italian-Americans as the N-word is to African-Americans. Cuomo later apologized for “add(ing) to the ugliness” and said “I should be better than what I oppose.”
Cuomo has not yet commented on the tapes heard on Carlson’s broadcast.