Chris Cuomo Confronts Defense Attorney in Arbery Trial: Were You Not ‘Making a Race Play?’

CNN’s Chris Cuomo went head-to-head with the lawyer for one of the Ahmaud Arbery murder defendants in a civil but intense conversation about the ongoing trial.

Attorney Kevin Gough represents Roddie Bryan, the third man who followed Travis and Gregory McMichael last year as they chased down Arbery before he was eventually shot to death. The Ahmaud murder trial jury is now in the process of deliberating their verdict, and Gough joined Cuomo Prime Time on Tuesday night, where he was confronted on the facts of the case.

The dust-up began as Gough contended that “the Arbery family is the most well-lawyered family in America right now.” Cuomo pointed out that the prosecutors in the trial were actually appointed by the state, though Gough countered that they are “very capable lawyers” who “have all done an outstanding job” in the courtroom.

“I can’t believe you’re saying this,” Cuomo exclaimed to Gough’s astonishment. The CNN host explained he was referring to Gough’s specific characterization “that the Arbery family has great lawyers.”

“This isn’t about just the Arberys,” he continued. “This is about the whole community that was wronged when the laws were broken and someone was killed illegally.”

From there, Cuomo pivoted the conversation to Gough’s call to remove Black pastors from the courtroom during the trial, a demand for which Gough apologized for its provocative connotations.

“Why bring up black pastors and their presence in what you know is a public accommodation, being in this courtroom and that you don’t have a say in who comes and who doesn’t come and observe?” Cuomo asked.

Gough claimed Cuomo would’ve done “exactly the same thing” in his position, to which, Cuomo shot back “no I wouldn’t” exclude them from the gallery. Gough accused Cuomo of not understanding the legal fundamentals of the trial, which Cuomo called an attempt to “flood the zone” and confound the conversation.

There is no Supreme Court case that says you can make a determination of who can be in the gallery watching the trial on the basis of race. You and I both know that. You said black pastors…You confused Jesse Jackson with Al Sharpton. And it seemed at a minimum, a fit of ignorance, and at maximum, you making a race play in this trial. Were you not doing that?

“Chris, you can call me ignorant,” Gough responded. “You can call me anything you want. But I’m here representing Roddie Bryan and I’m going to defend my client to the best of my ability and I don’t really care whether the people in the cheap seats like it or not.”

Cuomo responded to that by telling Gough “I’m not calling you ignorant. I’m saying the statement was. There’s a difference.”

Watch above, via CNN.