CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — The Washington Post’s media critic is calling on CNN to investigate Chris Cuomo after an investigation into his brother, Andrew Cuomo, found that the New York governor sexually harassed multiple current and former state government employees.
“I think that CNN should hire one of the these outside law firms and commission an investigation into what Chris Cuomo knew, when he knew it, what exact role he played in helping the governor to pushback against these sexual harassment allegations,” Erik Wemple said.
The CNN prime-time personality testified to investigators looking into his older brother’s behavior. His name appears four times in the 165-page report issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James as one of several outside advisers who were “regularly provided with confidential and often privileged information” that impacted the government despite having no “formal role, duty, or obligation to the State.”
Earlier this year, CNN said that Cuomo had acted inappropriately following a story in The Washington Post that he had participated in strategy calls with his brother’s advisers.
“There’s clearly no line between Chris Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo, and there should have been,” Wemple said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Hey, you know, this is his brother.’ No, he was participating in workplace calls with the administration to help his brother. This is completely out of hand, completely out of line. And there’s no excuse for it and CNN needs to know what happened here. I think they don’t know what happened.”
Chris Cuomo will be off the air for at least one week. The CNN anchor says he’s on a long-planned birthday week vacation.
In past statements, CNN has said that Chris Cuomo has not been involved in the network’s coverage of harassment allegations against his brother. The network covered James’ news conference releasing her report last week and discussed it extensively afterward.
On Balance with Leland Vittert airs weeknights at 8/7C on NewsNation.