‘My Family Means Everything To Me’: Chris Cuomo Defends Advising His Brother, Apologizes to CNN Colleagues For Putting Them ‘In A Bad Spot’

Cuomo Prime Time host Chris Cuomo took the first few minutes of his show to address the reports that he had participated in strategy calls with his brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), and his staffers, regarding how to respond to the governor’s sexual harassment/misconduct and Covid-19 nursing home deaths scandals.

“Remember I told you back in the beginning of March I can’t cover my brother’s troubles, it wouldn’t be fair,” said Cuomo. “You got it then and I appreciate you understanding. Now, today there are stories out there about me offering my brother advice. Of course I do. This is no revelation. I have said it publicly and I certainly have never hidden it.”

Cuomo said that he could be “objective about just about any topic,” except his family. “Like you, I bet, my family means everything to me. And I am fiercely loyal to them. I am family first, job second.”

It was “a unique challenge,” he continued, to be a journalist and brother to a politician, and he understood that he had “a unique responsibility to balance those roles.”

The truth, Cuomo said, was that after his brother’s situation “became turbulent,” he was “looped into calls with other friends of his and advisers, that did include some of his staff.”

He understood why this was a problem for CNN, and vowed that “it will not happen again.” He called his actions “a mistake, because I put my colleagues here, who I believe are the best in the business, in a bad spot.”

Cuomo apologized to his CNN colleagues on air, and added that not only had he refrained from covering the governor’s scandals, he had “never tried to influence this network’s coverage of my brother,” and had been “walled off from it.”

“This is a unique and difficult situation, and that’s okay,” Cuomo concluded. “I know where the line is. I can respect it and still be there for my family, which I must. I have to do that. I love my brother, I love my family, I love my job. And I love and respect my colleagues here at CNN. And again, to them I am truly sorry…I want this to be said in public to you who give me the opportunity and to my colleagues who make me better at what I do.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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