Chris Cuomo went off on Democrats and the political fringes on both sides of the aisle after 10 people were charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking an ICE detention center on July 4.
The Department of Justice charged 10 people with three attempted murder charges each, accusing them of targeting a Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, Texas. The individuals are accused of shooting at the center and vandalizing vehicles outside, including writing “ICE Pig” on one car.
According to the criminal complaint, one of the individuals shot a federal officer in the neck and dozens of rounds were fired at other officials. The officer who was shot is expected to survive.
On Tuesday, Cuomo called out political fringes on both sides of the political aisle, but began by focusing on Democrats, arguing their rhetoric is partly behind tensions being so high and comparing the arrested individuals to Luigi Mangione, who has been charged in the killing of Brian Thompson, the late CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Mangione’s alleged actions had some online praising him.
Cuomo said:
Listen, I got to tell you, if you want to have the fight, I’ll have the fight, okay? If you want try to tell me that you believe that you somehow represent something more pure when if you’re on the left, you just had 10 young people try to kill ICE officers because their policies suck? Because the way they’re doing it is wrong?
And this is something you want to get behind? And say, yeah, well, but — what but? What are you, nuts?! If want to have the fight, I’m here for it, because these fringe people on either side, you want somebody to take you on, I’m here for it. Because you’re killing us with your crazy.
The NewsNation host argued the attack on the ICE facility could have just as easily been an ISIS operation, and people would be calling for war.
“This was planned, it was organized, they baited, they picked a date, they were heavily harmed. I’m telling you, this could just have easily been an ISIS operation. And we would want to kill an entire country again. And yet now…This is no big deal,” he said.
Cuomo called the attack “fruit of the poisonous tree,” and later said both political sides are creating homegrown enemies with extreme rhetoric becoming the norm.
“These faces, to me, tell the story. This is who’s coming at me online. These are the ones that are making the videos. And look, if these were a bunch of MAGA people, I think there’d be probably more male to female ratio, but that wouldn’t surprise me either. We’re creating our own enemy structure here at home,” he said. “This is not Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the bad guys, we’re
“Them saying, ‘Oh, this was wrong.’ Listen, it’s not about saying it’s wrong. We all know it’s wrong. It’s that that the language you use and the imagery you use and the messaging that you put out there make this logical,” he argued. “It makes it that MAGA is afraid of people who are coming into the country, that you believe that if you are MAGA that you want to destroy the country and you’re a fascist and you want Trump to be king. That’s the crazy.”
Watch above via NewsNation.