(NewsNation) — NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo says he sympathizes with Sen. Ted Cruz over recent headlines involving his family. Cuomo says he knows what it’s like to have his family in the media “for no good reason” after the scandal involving him and his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo’s charge to those who partake in nasty partisan fights but tweet their well wishes to Cruz is to “think about how unsympathetic they are ordinarily.”
Here’s what he said Wednesday on “CUOMO.”
I leave families alone — even the Trump kids for the most part, who are almost all adults and run their mouths about me for sport.
I still give them a pass because I get their misplaced sense of loyalty.
But while I hope the Cruz family gets through whatever is happening, that is not what the moment serves to instruct.
Of course, his kid’s name and situation should be kept out of anyone’s mouth and head. But keep it in your heart because there are too many saying the right thing now that it works to do so. But then the same people, too many of them for sure, play the game in ugly fashion — distorting the truth for gain or clicks and choosing to be negative for advantage.
Yes, Ted Cruz begs for attacks with the way he plays the game. And yes, he is too often not how he would like people to now be about his family. But that is for him to deal with. I am saying all those who are expressing sympathy for the Cruz family should think about how unsympathetic they are ordinarily.
And that includes me.
I don’t swing at Cruz or any of the players the way I used to. Some of you even question whether I still have the fire — oh it burns, but not in the same way and for multiple reasons,
I think independent voters and the core of this country are sick of it — even refereeing the game as I did. And I am not designing my show for partisans who live for that stuff, but for you, who wants better, who wants more light and less heat.
But there is a personal reason, as well. I had a challenging year, but in some ways it was harder on my family. They paid a price for no good reason — actually for bad reasons: paparazzi and keyboard warriors. They were put in a bad position and forced to answer for things they had nothing to do with because of my decision to help my brother. And because too often, we are too mean to too many.
I did not see that coming for them, and it kills me. And as someone who grew up being bullied and all that good stuff because of who my daddy was, you would think I would know better. But I did it to mine as well, and I hate it, so I don’t do the job the same way because I want to try to limit the rage that comes for bad reason. And that is the right thing. You do not have to be an ass to be critical. You don’t have to try to destroy someone to make a point or to shed perspective, and I want the people in the game (the media, the pundits and players) who are all saying nice things (the right things) about the Cruz family to remember that when they go back to what they usually do, that adds to the poison politics that dominates, because you are acknowledging by your apparent compassion that there is a cost to destroying everyone and everything you can for sport and advantage because that is what works.
Right now, I bet you there is already stuff on social media about me blaming the senator or saying that the same thing was done to my own or some other complete BS twisted to the negative when they know it is not fair, just to score points in a terrible game.
It is also why, on the podcast, I talk about personal struggle and self care and my own experience. It is the right thing to do to make others feel more comfortable with self care, and to feed the beasts who want to come after me — keep the focus on what my family doesn’t have to defend.
I know when I said I stopped drinking for now that the haters would say I have a problem — that’s the game, and I know how to play it. But it stinks, and I want people to recognize that, in this moment of apparent understanding, we all know what is right. We just have to do it. Will we? I doubt it. Change takes time, but the best way to show that you oppose something is to be different than what you oppose, not to merely attack what you oppose. Be better.
I am trying. Are you?
Chris cuomo