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Chris Cuomo has responded to criticism he received following his interview with TikToker Baylen Dupree, who has Tourette’s syndrome.
21-year-old Dupree, who has 9.1 million followers on the social media platform, appeared on the anchor’s NewsNation show, CUOMO, on Tuesday (12 December) to discuss her advocacy for the condition of the nervous system, which causes people to have sudden, repeated outbursts known as “tics”.
During the segment, Cuomo, 53, broke down in laughter on a couple of occasions during Dupree’s more vulgar tics.
Cuomo prefaced the interview by warning viewers: “She says some pretty ugly stuff unintentionally, and I’m laughing because I get what it’s about and that’s why I don’t care. It’s not curse words to be mean.”
Nevertheless, certain tabloid outlets picked up on the segment, accusing Cuomo of laughing at his guest.
The journalist addressed these reports during Wednesday’s show, saying: “Last night, we did a story. It was a little dicey, people weren’t sure we could do it because there was going to be a lot of cursing, and [executive producer Alexandra Cohen] and I didn’t give a damn.
“Why? Baylen Dupree has gone viral – and for good reason. We love giving a platform for her to fight the stigma of having Tourette syndrome.”
Cuomo then pulled up headlines from the Daily Mail, which read: “Chris Cuomo erupts with laughter as he interviews TikToker with Tourette’s and she repeatedly tells him to ‘f-k off’ and adopts a British accent,” and from Mediaite, which read: “F-k off, f-you, Chris Cuomo:’ Watch Chris Cuomo’s stunning and unforgettable talk with Tourette’s influencer,” respectively.
“I believe they were saying I was laughing at her,” Cuomo said, referring to the Mail’s headline. “That’s the suggest. Why? Because that’s mean and mean is clickbait and taking a bite out of my behind makes them money. But it’s also what feeds the instinct to be nasty in the first place. This is what we are.”
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He added: “It makes it sound like someone went off on me on the show… the kid didn’t come on my show to curse at me. It’s a tic, it’s not a quote, it’s not intentional. By the way most of what she said about me? True. It shows that that’s our inclination: being nasty. Being nasty sells.”
Cuomo was fired from CNN in December 2021 after it came to light that he had served as an adviser for his brother Andrew Cuomo while he was battling sexual harassment allegations as governor of New York, forcing him to resign in August of that year.
The US attorney general found that Cuomo crossed normal journalistic lines of objectivity in public affairs, reaching out to sources and other journalists to see if there were further accusers planning to step forward, as well as conducting research on various accusers.
Following his termination, Cuomo filed a Demand for Arbitration against CNN for $125m, seeking to recover the remainder of the money on his contract with the network and lost wages due to damage to his reputation.