Chris Cuomo was right to help his embattled older brother, Andrew Cuomo
A recent comment by Fox News host Tucker Carlson reminds us of what matters: that politics are meant to serve human beings, not the other way around
Last month, in a move that wasn’t nearly as remarked-upon as it should have been, Tucker Carlson came to the defense of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. Cuomo had taken part in strategy sessions with his older brother, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, during the sexual-harassment scandal—which, of course, ultimately ended in the elder Cuomo’s resignation.
CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, distanced him and his company from Cuomo the Younger’s actions, calling them “a mistake.” Chris Cuomo self-flagellated, saying his actions “crossed the line.”
It’s worth quoting Carlson in full; it was, by any reasonable measure, a very human moment, shot through with commonsense and decency. Carlson prefaced his remarks by saying that he was making them in a spirit of “total sincerity”:
One, you’re not responsible for the misbehavior of your relatives. Sorry. You didn’t choose them. In fact, you’re not responsible for anyone else’s misbehavior. Only your own. That’s just true. It’s the basis of American justice, and it’s the basis of human decency. Don’t blame people for things they didn’t do.
And the other point to make is, Chris Cuomo’s coming under a lot of fire for helping his brother in the middle of this crisis. Now, we can’t evaluate how true that is. But if it is true, let’s be real for a second. It’s understandable. It’s his brother.
Your loyalty should be to your family above all else. Not joking at all. Maybe even above your job. Maybe even above [CNN President] Jeff Zucker.
If your brother calls and says, “I need help,” if you don’t give him help because you’re pretending to be a news anchor on some stupid cable channel nobody watches, you’re betraying your brother, and that’s a greater sin than any of the dumb politics they espouse on that channel. Totally true. So, we’re not gonna criticize him for that.
It’s difficult to overstate how important—and how needed—that message is in the current moment of intense polarization.
For one thing, the CRT madness swirling all around us is directly contrary to Carlson’s first point. It’s all about saddling people who are alive now with the sins of their long-dead fathers. Despite what David French says, there is absolutely no “conservative case”—let alone a biblical one—for hereditary blood guilt.
Carlson effectively stated, in just a few sentences, precisely why CRT and related theories of “justice” are so wrong: They obliterate any notion of individuality, personal responsibility, and choice, opting instead to make guilt and stain, purity and innocence, a matter of unchosen group identity. As I noted in 2017 (doesn’t that feel like it was at least 50 years ago?),
[t]he tradition of the West is clear: We have duties to others to alleviate their suffering and to address certain systems which perpetuate sinful outcomes. But to browbeat persons for the “sin” of merely being born a certain race is deeply immoral and contrary to a genuine moral advance: We must be held directly accountable only for what we—not others, even our own ancestors—do and have done.
The rest of Carlson’s brief remarks are also worth exploring.
At present, part of the problem in American life is that too many people have their priorities totally out of whack. For example, as Michael Knowles has wryly quipped, because of certain economic forces and pressures, “In many cases you have a man paying a woman to raise his children so that his wife can work for another man at the consulting firm or the widget factory.” Thus, family is sacrificed to GDP.
What Carlson said—i.e., that Chris Cuomo’s job and boss are not more important than his family—is true. It’s so obvious that we might have even lost sight of it. I can’t pretend to know how many people have forgotten, or perhaps never really learned, that family is sacred and should not ever be thrown under the bus, least of all for a promotion or raise. But it’s a good reminder nonetheless.
I take a back seat to no one in criticizing Andrew Cuomo. But Carlson is absolutely right on this. Put aside for a moment whether Andrew Cuomo actually did what the New York AG’s report said he did. At the time, he was in trouble: cornered, scared, and isolated—fighting for his political life. We might say that Andrew Cuomo cares altogether too much about his power if he is was willing to go to the mats for something like this (and especially so if his power was part of why he harassed those 11 women, if he in fact did so). And that’s probably so.
Regardless, he did what any sane person would do in such a circumstance: He turned to his brother, who, as a cable news anchor, has PR and communications experience, to help him with thinking through how to respond to the bombshell allegations, allegations that would rattle anyone, governor or not.
If we cannot see how expected, how normal, how human that is, then America is not worth preserving, frankly.
America should be a place where nobody bats an eye at such fraternal assistance; it should be as routine as children playing on a swing set, or an apple pie cooling on a window sill. Ask yourself: What would you do, were you caught in such a maelstrom, whether true or not; would you not turn to a sibling, your parents, and close, dear friends, for help, advice, and support?
Of course you would.
When your brother (or sister) calls, looking for help, you help. It’s that simple, and it’s what America is all about. To fail to render such aid, particularly for vain reasons like preserving or advancing one’s status or wealth, is a sin of the highest order; stated plainly (something we don’t do enough), it’s betrayal, and Dante, in his Inferno, reserves the deepest circle of Hell for the three greatest betrayers: Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot.
If we lose sight of that reality, then all this struggle and toil to “save America” is but “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Worthless. Who would preserve an inhuman garbage dump?
Nobody—and rightly so.
If that’s the true state of the country, then the forces of chaos have already won.
A very nice article Deion. I was uncomfortable with "my side's" piling on of Chris Cuomo here, and I think your examination helps me to understand why. Oddly enough, this recognition of the importance of family was also key to why many conservatives objected to Chris' coverage of his brother's governorship in the first place--it was assumed that, because they were brothers, he would be unwilling (perhaps unable) to examine him in an objective and piercing enough way. But it would be wrong for someone to invite his brother onto his television show, only to spend the segment attacking him for, say, killing a large number of senior citizens and then trying to hide it. As much as I might want to see him called to account for that, I don't want to see a family torn apart over it. Sadly, it seems that too often we see families ripped apart over politics these days; we would do well to take your advice and remember that our familial ties are more important than politics, jobs, prestige, and the like. After all, if the family is the building block of society, then we can build nothing if we are willing to break it apart.
Well said, Deion! I agree: humanity trumps "optics", or at least it ought to. I couldn't care less if Chris Cuomo helped out his brother. His brother, after all, is entitled to sound advice as he negotiates (or as he negotiated) the charges against him. He's even entitled to a presumption of innocence. Imagine that!