Brian Stelter says some people at CNN are 'ticked off' at Chris Cuomo: 'A wide range of opinions'
CNN anchor Brian Stelter joined The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Tuesday, just hours after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation amid a sexual harassment scandal. But the subject of conversation wasn’t Andrew Cuomo, it was his little brother, Stelter’s colleague at CNN, Chris Cuomo, who Colbert wanted to talk about. Colbert brought up a recent New York Times report that the younger Cuomo had been helping his brother and working with his communications team.
“Has that created any conflict over at CNN?” Colbert asked. “Behind closed doors, are people mad at him, or is he in trouble?” “Some people are mad at him,” Stelter answered. “By the way, I can confirm the New York Times report. I’ll confirm it for your viewers.”
In May, Cuomo came clean about advising his brother, admitted it was a mistake and said it would not happen anymore. At the time, CNN called his actions inappropriate but understood the unique situation in which Cuomo found himself.
“They admitted that he screwed up,” Stelter said. “They said, ‘You know, what you did was inappropriate. You were on the phone with your brother’s aides advising him on what to do, and that was inappropriate.’ But they said, ‘Of course you’re gonna talk to your brother.’”
Colbert mentioned that Cuomo had not been covering his brother’s scandal, which Cuomo said in March he would not do because his brother was involved. Stelter said that ruling came from CNN management. Colbert countered with the “odd conflict of rules” that allowed Governor Cuomo to appear on Cuomo Prime Time seemingly every night at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stelter admitted that it is an odd conflict of rules, but also said it was a crazy set of circumstances: A governor and a brother, both in high-profile jobs.
“This was definitely awkward for CNN though. I tried to go into this thinking, if I was going to cover this at CBS, how would I cover it, and try to cover it the same way,” Stelter said. “And I talked to a lot of sources at CNN. Some said, ‘Yeah, this is really weird. I’m ticked off at Chris.’ Others said, ‘You know, I understand. You can't pick who your family members are.’ So there was a wide range of opinions.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.
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