‘This Feels Wrong’: A Distraught Alisyn Camerota Defends Jeff Zucker Over CNN Ouster

CNN Newsroom host Alisyn Camerota reacted to the news of the resignation of network head Jeff Zucker Wednesday, calling it “an incredible loss” that “feels wrong.”

The news of Zucker’s sudden departure shocked the media world, especially considering the apparent tie-in to former host Chris  Cuomo’s firing over his efforts to help his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), respond to his sex scandals; Zucker admitted to having an affair with CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust, who had been a communications director for Gov. Cuomo. Russian nesting dolls of sex scandals, if you will.

As he had done earlier in the day, Brian Stelter appeared on CNN Newsroom with Camerota and Victor Blackwell to discuss Zucker’s announcement, which seemed to have shocked his colleagues as much as it had those outside the company.

“Jeff was a visionary leader for CNN during the last nine years of what can be called a challenging news cycle,” said Camerota. “Brian, it’s a tough day here.”

Stelter agreed, calling Zucker’s resignation a “huge surprise” that “leaves a leadership void.” He described the issue that forced Zucker to leave as a “professional relationship that turned romantic [but] was not disclosed at the outset,” in contravention of Warner  Media’s “clear policy.”

Zucker had offered to stay on for a “transition period,” Stelter added, but that was rejected by Warner Media, and he was “facing termination if he did not resign.”

After Stelter discussed CNN’s transition plans, Camerota said she wanted “to say something personal for a moment.”

Camerota said that she felt Zucker’s resignation “deeply personally” and called it “an incredible loss.”

“Jeff is a remarkable person and an incredible leader,” she continued. “He has this uncanny ability to make, I think, every one of us feel special and valuable in our own way, even though he is managing an international news organization of thousands of people. I just know he had this unique ability to make us feel special. I don’t think that comes around all the time and I think, again, it’s an incredible loss.”

Camerota added that she thought it was “so regrettable how it happened,” and how it “feels wrong” that “two consenting adults who are both executives” couldn’t have “a private relationship.”

Stelter responded that there were “two layers” to add to that. “Number one” was Chris Cuomo. “He’s not going out quietly,” describing his former colleague as reportedly “trying to burn the place down,” and threatening to go to court “claiming he had incriminating information about Zucker and Gollust.”

It was “a remarkable domino effect, a chain of events,” leading from Gov. Cuomo and Chris Cuomo to Zucker, said Stelter.

Watch the video above, via CNN.