CNN host Chris Cuomo got into a heated argument with a man over the weekend where he threatened to throw the man down the stairs for calling him “Fredo.”
“Fredo” is a reference to Fredo Corleone in the movie “The Godfather.” Fredo is a weak, dopey brother so the name is obviously an insult.
The whole situation gets even stranger when CNN along with Cuomo noted that calling Cuomo “Fredo” is like calling a black person the “N” word. This immediately backfired.
In an interview with radio show host Curtis Sliwa in 2010, Cuomo was asked about his brother Andrew and if he would be seeking the Democratic governor nomination.
“There is a group of people — politicos — who always hint they might run, but not necessarily plunge all the way, and they are members of la Cuomo,” Sliwa said.
“Who am I, then, Fredo?” Cuomo responded.
“Yes, exactly,” Sliwa stated. “So you better be careful that your brother Andrew doesn’t kiss you on both cheeks and then all of a sudden they take you out on the middle of the lake and where’s Chris?”
“He kisses me plenty because he’s a great big brother,” Cuomo joked.
Cuomo seemed not to care about the “ethnic slur” when he was joking on the radio but took great offense to it when someone he didn’t like called him it.
“No, punk-ass b—-es from the right call me ‘Fredo.’ My name is Chris Cuomo. I’m an anchor on CNN,” Cuomo angrily scolded the man who called him Fredo. “‘Fredo’ was from ‘The Godfather.’ He was a weak brother and they use that as an Italian slur- are any of you Italian?… It’s a f—ing insult to your people. It’s an insult to your f–kin’ people. It’s like the n-word for us. Is that a cool f—ing thing?”
“I’ll f—ing ruin your s—,” Cuomo said later during the confrontation. “I’ll f—in throw you down these stairs like a f—in’ punk.”
“Please do,” the man taunted back.
“So you can f—in’ sue?” Cuomo asked. “Then take a swing at me… You wanna call me ‘Fredo,’ take a f—in’ swing… I’m f—in’ right here. I’ll f—in’ wreck your s—.”
Cuomo also seemed to not have a problem with the word “Fredo” (same as the “N” word according to him) when it was used by never-Trumper Ana Navarro to describe Donald Trump Jr. on his own show.
WATCH:
Does CNN’s head of PR still think “Fredo” is an ethnic slur after watching this? Because if it’s the N word for Italians like @ChrisCuomo says, I don’t understand why Chris seems so at ease with someone saying it here. An excuse just as fake as his news. #FredoCuomo https://t.co/8G8yuY80CK pic.twitter.com/1gwVyDVCob
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 13, 2019
Trump Jr. made sure to add, “”Hey @ChrisCuomo, take it from me, ‘Fredo’ isn’t the N-word for Italians, it just means you’re the dumb brother.”
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