The Chris Cuomo Project - Chris Cuomo reacts to comments about "sanewashing" Trump, Luigi Mangione & more
Episode Date: March 20, 2025Chris Cuomo responds to a new batch of listener calls and YouTube comments, diving into topics like Trump’s support among Latino voters, the debate over whether violence drives societal change, and ...the controversy surrounding the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Cuomo also addresses criticisms about his coverage of corporate power, reflects on the complexities of immigration and labor in America, and pushes back against claims that he’s “sanewashing” Trump. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Support our sponsors: Bamboo Reclaim your time. Check out the free demo at BambooHR.com/freedemo. See for yourself all that BambooHR can do – and how truly affordable it can be too! Cozy Earth Luxury Shouldn’t Be Out of Reach. Visit CozyEarth.com/CHRIS and use my exclusive code CHRIS for up to 40% off Cozy Earth’s best-selling sheets, towels, pajamas, and more. RadioActive Media Learn how you can experience the power of audio marketing by also utilizing the strength of text messaging which can generate and RIO as high as 7 to 1. Text ""CHRIS"" to 511 511 or on the web at radioactivemedia.com Text rates may apply. Select Quote Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at SELECTQUOTE.COM/CHRISC to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Support for the Chris Cuomo Project comes from AG1.
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year on a healthier note. Chris Cuomo here at the Chris Cuomo Project and as
you see I'm putting in my IFB. Why? Because it is time for me to hear from
you. What are your questions? What are your comments on what I'm putting out here on the project?
And to take you on you have a very very capable advocate in the form of Gregory, maybe his real
name, maybe not, Ott. 100% my real name. Hey, tell people what IFB stands for.
Interfrequency Broadcast.
Wow.
I didn't know that.
Did you think I wasn't gonna know?
No, I figured you would know.
Funky ass.
But you say IFB, you know, that's an acronym.
It's like a business industry acronym.
You gotta tell, no, okay, fair.
Okay, well, the audience listening to this
can't see that you're pointing at a muscle on your body.
A big muscle.
Okay, but a muscle. A big muscle.
Okay, but a muscle.
A big muscle.
Okay, great.
Well, I'm just telling the audience what you're doing if they're listening to this and not
watching it.
So let me tell you something.
It is very important that we keep doing this.
Too many of these podcasts are falling prey to something that happens in all media, which
is bubble effect. So it's really important that we keep hearing from who likes and who
does not like and looking for that space and the nexus of the two. And if Greg Ott loves doing one thing, it's finding comments and questions that are bad for me.
Now, hold on a second.
I found a pretty good mix this time.
I've also went through all the YouTube comments,
not all of them, but many of them.
And I've filtered out the automatic mean ones.
There's a lot of them that is like,
Cuomo, you suck, Cuomo, fuck you, blah, blah, blah.
I'm not using those.
I don't really rely on those anymore.
I actually have a pretty good grab bag for this episode.
I think you're gonna like the calls and the comments,
many of which we have.
Are you cool if we launch into this?
I don't know what else I'm gonna do.
Well, you're playing on your phone right there.
You showed off your muscle to the cameras.
So I just wanna make sure you're all ready.
I showed off the muscle to the camera
apropos of my strong move on that gotcha question. It's a gotcha question. I'm trying to muscle to the camera apropos of my strong move. Right. Because you know, you know, it's a gotcha question.
I'm trying to clarify for the audience what IFB means.
And now I am also, you know, when I'm doing this, I am not just a podcaster.
I have a cable news show every night that I write.
So I'm always working on different things.
Always, always, always multitasking.
And I believe it helps.
Cause I think that I'm just in a general groove.
You know what I mean?
Like this isn't just one aspect of my day.
I'm working on a 24 seven, 365.
So what do you got?
Let's launch into the calls right now.
These are listener calls, real calls
from the people who listen to and watch the show.
These are real calls from the people who listen to and watch the show.
I just had a question in regards to Trump.
If he can have 34 fellow reasons to still be the president, why is it that I can have one and can't find a job or not get hired.
Just saying.
That is a great, great question.
It's because it's not fair.
That's why.
It's because the system's not fair.
And we don't believe in rehabilitation
and redemption in the society the way we say we do.
Everybody loves a comeback.
Yeah, yes and no.
And I think there are few and far in between.
And you know, it's interesting.
The difference is this.
His 34 felony counts that he was convicted on
are about business records and of course,
the payments, right, to the women.
And those I don't think were really valued by people as much as saying 34 counts.
What they were about matters also and people thought that this was a selective prosecution
that was done because it's Trump and that if it was anybody else, these cases would not have been made this way.
Now, they're counterfactuals to that.
There are a lot of business records cases that are made exactly like this.
But again, people had mixed feelings about it.
And that was certainly true about the hush money payments, which I definitely agree with
that.
I believe the New York cases were not the best cases to bring against Donald Trump. And I don't believe that the metric is as simple as, well, is it a case you think
you can win? I think it's about what the public policy is that's involved also. And yet at
the other end of the scale, there's you. And there's somebody who has a felony for something.
I don't know what it is. You didn't say what it is, but that it's unforgivable and you can never get back.
It is a double standard.
And the irony within the irony is people see that Trump was a victim of a two-tiered system,
right?
Because they were going after him for political expedience.
Other people see him as proof of a two-tiered system because the white guy with power doesn't
get screwed
by the system the way you did in terms of harshness.
And that's where we are.
And that's really frustrating.
And there's no question that we have to do better about how we reincorporate people into
society.
Change is slow, especially when we're not focused on it.
And right now we are often wasting energy
on what I think are things that take us nowhere
or backwards.
And I'm sorry for your situation
and I hope it changes for the better.
And I appreciate your question, it's a great one.
Oh, hello, my name is Rosa.
I'm calling you from Montauk. I just want you to talk about
the Latinos to drop in power. The Latinos didn't know about the things. They just did
it because, okay, the economy and maybe the Latinos want to deport the others. The Latinos want the illegal to be deported.
And they vote for Trump for that and for the economy.
But I know the economy was good.
We had a pandemic, but they don't know.
They never think about that.
How they think Trump is gonna give them papers. Sometimes you don't know about those think about that. How they think Trump is going to give them papers.
Sometimes you don't know about those things about Latinos. They don't know. They don't listen to
good news like you and the news that I watch. Okay, bye. Thank you. Well, Rosa, look, I get it
and I appreciate you and maybe we'll bump into each other.
I love Montauk out there all the time, especially during the fishing season.
My wife serves out there, kids are always out there.
Thank you for calling in.
Now, no disrespect, obviously you're a Latina and you understand the culture better than
I will, but let's not generalize.
Okay? Not all Latinos, it's not a monolithic group, right?
And the idea that Latinos put Trump in office,
is that true?
No, white voters put him in office,
but he got 46% of the Latino vote,
give or take looking at the exit polls,
and that is almost a 10 to 15% increase,
depending on which slice
of Latinos you're looking at, from the election he lost to Biden.
And so why did it change in his favor?
I think the economy had a big thing to do with it.
And I also think a lot of Latinos are against illegal immigration and don't believe that
Trump is a bigot.
They believe it's about right and wrong and that they did it the right way. And overwhelmingly, Latinos in this country
are here legally or born here, right?
And they can also be frustrated by
and against politically and personally
to what is seen as a permissive southern border mentality and an unsafe border.
And Latinos, again, not to generalize, but there is a cultural influence of family unit,
very important, Christianity, very important. And those structures and values play to being slightly conservative.
So I'm not shocked that Latinos vote right, and not just Cubans,
who are known to be center-right.
But I think the idea that all Latinos are going to be lefties
because they're illegal immigrants, or they side with people who enter illegally,
I think is old thinking.
I think the economy and yes, culture
and concerns about our culture can move Latino voters.
And we saw that in this election.
They shouldn't be looked at as a monolith
and they shouldn't be looked at as single issue voters.
And I don't think it's about collective ignorance.
You know, I hear that a lot from people who are anti-Trump
that they think people who vote for him are stupid.
I think that that is a stupid idea.
Not you, Rosa, I would never disrespect anybody that way.
And I think you're intelligent and I think you care,
and thank you for caring.
But you don't have to be a bigot
and you don't have to be dumb to vote for Trump.
You can be worried about things and think that the risk
of what the
alternative is to him is even worse than what he is personally. And I think
that's why we are where we are.
Chris, nobody supporting what you're saying about this. The Louie's you
imagine he'd been a terrorist. You said not on your own, man. You're totally
wrong. Ain't nobody scratching their heads or whatever. You've been covering
this for over 20 years and you see it hadn't changed.
When is it going to change?
Chris, what are the insurance companies going to change?
It ain't changing.
Maybe it takes violence.
And I think you're wrong.
Look at throughout history.
You never see a change.
You, that takes place a significant change takes place without violence, even
in civil rights and stuff here in the U S for black people, it had to be that
balance that made it change, you know,
peaceful preaching and walk in and all that stuff.
Doesn't cause no changes or whatever for that.
It was, it was, it was the people like the,
it was the nation of Islam and all of those and the violence and everything and
the black Panthers and stuff that cause it,
that cause it to change and even throughout history and stuff.
So maybe it's time for violence or whatever, in order to initiate a change.
Not all of this peaceful stuff or whatever, even covered us over 20 years.
What, why hasn't it changed?
And Chris, there's been plenty of protests, plenty of lawsuits, plenty of
appeals, all of this stuff.
Why hasn't it changed?
Chris?
I mean, I goodness don't assume that everybody has your same opinion or
whatever, but maybe if you give us some of that rich insurance you have, we won't have a problem.
I'm sure you never had to struggle with insurance problems at all.
Being all that money and rich and everything, you know, with your daddy and stuff coming
to being governor, I'm sure he was, I'm sure you had the best insurance
out of your life, man.
Once you try putting on our shoes and struggle for a while and then being caught.
All right. Look, you have your right to your opinion.
I appreciate your calling in. You make some decent points.
I have had problems with insurance personally.
I've been fighting with an insurance company over about one hundred thousand dollars
for a surgery for my daughter that they don't want to pay for.
So I do know. And that money would matter to me.
My father was a public servant almost my entire life,
certainly growing up.
He got out of public service when I was 25,
and then he died in 2015, so I was, what, 45.
when in 2015, so I was what, 45.
So for 20 years, he was in private sector, for 25 growing up when he was insuring me, to your point,
he was in public service.
And yeah, there was good insurance.
I don't think that means, and I think we have a problem.
I don't think it helps you get to a better place
by accusing a person who says something that you don't agree
with of privilege.
Most of the people who fought for civil rights
were not black people who were disenfranchised in terms
of creating the change in Congress, which
is where it happened.
LBJ, you can question why he did itBJ, you can question why he did it.
Kennedy, you can question why he did it.
Those were white men that made it happen.
And it was white men in Congress who codified it into law.
So the idea that just because you're a privileged white person,
you can't understand anything, I think is a little off, okay?
And I think that whatever my personal experience is,
and again, it's not as you see it, but even if it were,
it doesn't mean that over the course of decades
covering the issue,
because you're saying two things at once,
that I've covered it for 20 years and nothing's changed.
So you get that I see that,
but you also say at the same time
that I don't understand your pain.
And I think I can understand the issue
and understand the pain that people feel without having felt it myself.
And I think that that's true for you too, right?
There are lots of things that you can understand and have sympathy for and empathy for that you didn't experience yourself.
Now, I really don't agree with you. And if you are a black man, this doesn't make me racist.
The idea that we got civil rights reform because of violence,
I think it's the opposite. I think the reason that Dr. King and a generation of activists prevailed
was because they didn't succumb to the tactics of their opponents, of harshness and violence and
ugliness. I think it's the opposite. I think the reason
that the movement wound up going with Dr. King and not Malcolm X's early understanding
of by any means necessary and violence as a path to change and the Panthers, et cetera,
is because of the nonviolence of the movement and that it was done through litigation and not violence.
So I disagree.
I think that there was unrest.
I think that there was anger and I think that those are motivating factors, but the violence,
I don't agree with you.
That being a positive change aspect in our history.
And I think that even our revolution against England, when you have
an oppressor and that is the only mechanism for change is warfare. That's one thing, right? Even
the Vatican acknowledges that there can be such things as a good war. But the specific here with
the guy who assassinated the CEO, what has changed for the better with healthcare
because he shot the guy in the head?
I think if anything, we got distracted by how wrong that was
and it kind of took the energy out of dealing
with healthcare.
And there are real problems and now we're seeing real
problems with the California fires in property and fire insurance.
Should you go shoot some big shot
from all these different companies
that we're dealing with now?
I hope not, God forbid.
God forbid, what would that make better?
The idea that you can become what you oppose
and get to a better place, I don't think works.
And I don't think that's some bullshit, you know, mushy headed thinking.
I think it's cold hard practicality.
You got to be better than what you oppose if you're going to change it.
And I think that's always been true.
And the idea that you're going to shoot someone in the head and it's going to lead you to
a better place.
I haven't seen it yet.
Hey, my name is Stephanie.
Super weird request.
My grandmother loves you so much.
She's 88.
She's bedridden.
I got her a pillowcase with your face and a heart around your face last year for Christmas.
And I'm just wondering if you can call and just leave her a message. Her name is Robbie and she would freak out if she got a message from Chris Cuomo.
We live in Vancouver, Washington and she has the absolute biggest crush on you.
Okay. Thanks so much. Bye.
Hey, you like to have any Olivia. Thanks so much.
Robbie, this message is for you.
It's Chris Cuomo.
And I need to have you on my show
because I have to ask you where you were
on the night of April 5th, 2017.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm calling to say thank you so much
for caring about what I do
and for supporting my efforts and for giving me an opportunity
to do the job.
And your granddaughter is a beautiful example of being raised right by you and by her parents
that she thought of you this deeply to waste her time coming to someone like me to try to call you.
And I'm happy to do it.
I hope everything is good with you.
I've been to Vancouver and it is an interesting place.
I was covering a bad thing when I was there, but I hope you guys are well up there.
And I thank you again for giving me a chance
and for thinking good thoughts about me and what I do.
And I appreciate Stephanie, your granddaughter as well.
God bless, be well.
That was very sweet of you.
I assumed you would call them right away
as soon as I played that call.
Really?
Yeah, cause you do that kind of stuff.
What are you a mentalist?
No, I just think you, I think you like reaching out to people who, you know,
you're always telling me I'm going to pull all the bad stuff.
That was a nice thing.
And by the way, there are multiple Cuomo pillows available on, if you Google
Chris Cuomo pillow, there's one of you on a-
Probably whoopie cushions.
Bronx chair.
There's one that says in Godfather, we trust with Fredo.
And it looks like a dollar bill with you on the center.
I don't think that's the one they got.
Italians, the only ethnicity you can shit on.
And it's not bigotry.
What about you kissing Don Lemon?
That's a pillow.
That's nice. That's beautiful.
And then there's one of lots of your face.
This is just lots of you in profile and your face.
Hmm, nice.
This is, it's available on-
It's a lot of me.
That's a lot of you.
Hey, this channel's a lot of you.
This is all Cuomo.
So maybe this is, 1999, it's actually on sale right now
down from 2199 if you want a small 14 by 14 version,
or if you have a big couch, that's $29.99 on sublyworks.com.
You enjoying yourself right now?
No, I'm just telling you that this lady
said she got a pillow with your face on it.
And if the audience wants another pillow
with your face on it, well, here's one right here.
Okay, next.
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We're gonna move on to the YouTube comments right now.
I'm sorry, I didn't like all the pillow talk.
Ha ha ha, pillow talk, see what he did there?
What? Go ahead.
I'm just talking about pillows.
I am gonna go back to the call that we had a moment ago about the health
insurance CEO, Brian Thompson, his, his murder.
There has been a lot of comments on the channel about you covering that subject
and health insurance in America. This is from Ria 5690 from YouTube.
You make the CEO out to be a saint.
He was making millions in bonuses
and he knew exactly what he was doing.
237 likes.
Marianne Kunitz7777 wrote,
Chris, I just cannot relate to a man
who earns $10 million per year.
I can't relate to a person
who puts corporate profit over human life.
I'm a very empathetic person,
but this type of greed is not anything
I can relate to at all.
295 likes.
And then Muddy Waters, 538 wrote,
I disagree with what you said.
Every penny that CEO made was blood money.
And he was walking down the street
like he owned the whole world.
397 likes.
First of all, I'm happy the numbers are small
because I just think it's a reflection of the worst of us.
And here's why. I'm not a fan of the worst of us. And here's why.
I'm not a fan of the health insurance companies.
I've been covering it for 20 years.
We're working on a News Nation series
where we're going through all these different things
that need to be changed about health insurance.
And I guarantee you we'll be ahead of most people
who will just move by that tragedy
and just forget about it like we do all the time
in our society.
Look, I can't get past the idea that murder
is a good change mechanism for policy.
It just doesn't work.
You don't know anything about the guy
and every cent of or every dollar he made,
so UnitedHealthcare does nothing good.
I mean, come on, It's just, it's not
even, it's not rational. And I get the anger, but the idea that murder gets you to a better
place, you just, you lose me. That doesn't mean that I don't think that these guys put
profits over people. You know, look, we have a problem with capitalism in this country,
right? You're not really allowed to talk about it. Everything's got to be capitalism. It's
like our national religion, right?
But you can take care of them whenever they need it.
They get bailed out.
They get special treatment.
They get accommodations that no individuals get
or small businesses don't get.
Why?
Well, because they motivate our economy.
They employ a lot of people.
But what do you get when capitalism is unbridled by ethics or morality?
Then it's just about greed.
And I think health insurance companies have certainly been on the wrong side of that line way too many times.
And there's a need for change.
But, but, but, you don't get to a better place by shooting a guy in the head.
Look, are we having congressional hearings right now about changing the healthcare industry
because this punk-ass kid shot somebody in the head?
And by the way, he didn't have a single fucking problem with health insurance companies.
It never affected his life.
He's been living his best life in Hawaii on his parents' dime, who made their money in
the healthcare business.
Don't you see the hypocrisy at play here? You are no better than what you oppose as soon as you made their money in the healthcare business.
Don't you see the hypocrisy at play here? You are no better than what you oppose
as soon as you shoot a guy in the head
because you don't like the system.
Why don't we kill our leaders all the time then?
Be like Pakistan.
I mean, come on.
Either you want a standard that they're not meeting.
There's a morality, there's an ethical standard
that they are failing to meet, but you're not gonna meet it yourself?
Well, sometimes violence is justified, really.
And this is the case?
I don't accept that.
And that doesn't mean that I have a different feeling
than you about the insurance system
or the need to change it.
It's about how you change it.
And I don't see how shooting a guy in the head
who you don't know anything about,
let alone that he's responsible for what you hate about United Health Care or insurance in general.
He was walking around like he owns the place. How the fuck do you know how he was walking around?
So if somebody thought that your father was the reason that their life isn't going great at work
because he's a shitty boss, should they shoot him in the head?
If he had been unfairly holding them down, keeping them back for money they should have made,
ripping them off, should they shoot him in the head?
These are from your interview with Ian Bremmer.
You recently had him on
and he talked about the biggest geopolitical risks
he sees in 2025.
He put out a report about that
and also talked a bit about Trump's second stint
as president, Jim McCord, 4,722 just wrote,
I generally listened closely to Ian,
but as a former farm operator,
I totally disagree with his opinion
that Americans will be willing to take on the work
in agricultural fields that illegal immigrants now provide.
House construction work, yes, but nope,
never going to happen in our ag fields.
Or-
Depends what they pay.
There's another comment, Thomas Thietens wrote,
I highly doubt corporations and businesses
are going to give up cheap labor to give Americans the jobs
they aren't eager to work.
It depends how much they pay.
And I agree, I don't think that the pay will be enticing
enough to do work that Americans to this point have shown
that they don't wanna do anymore,
which is why there
is the demand for labor, right?
Which is why they're coming here, right?
They're coming here to do jobs that we don't want to do.
But a big part of the reason that we don't want to do the jobs is because of what they're
getting paid and how they're treated there.
So that's part of it also.
And then you have the other part to Ian's theory,
which is, well, what happens when they do start paying
enough to make you want to pick strawberries?
Well, then how much do the strawberries cost?
See, I don't think the American,
look, I think we know the answer already, okay?
The American consumer is okay with things being made
elsewhere if it puts their prices down.
And that is why nothing changes,
is that you don't see an American revolt
against buying abroad.
I'm only gonna buy American.
Who does that?
Who does that if it's not cheaper?
Do you do that in your life?
I think of like a guitar, like a US made guitar
or a one made in Mexico or something
that is ostensibly a very similar model.
Like I think like a Fender Telecaster.
Like I have a non US Telecaster at home
because it costs like half as much as a US made one.
And what's the difference to me?
While I'm a casual player,
it's like, I don't want to invest all this money.
Do you remember Amherst?
You'll correct me if I'm wrong, but remember Ibanez?
Ibanez was not an American company, I think.
You gotta look it up.
But they were so much less expensive.
They look just like the other ones, so you buy it.
I mean, that's what China has done, right?
And I'm not blaming them.
That's what the market demand.
Yeah, they're a Japanese company.
So the idea that this sucks.
Trump is right. OK, how is he right?
Well, because these illegals are coming here and taking our jobs.
They are not taking our jobs.
They're taking lower rung jobs
that Americans demonstrably don't want to do,
which is why they're available. Yeah, but that's because they don't pay enough. Make them pay.
Okay, but then those things are going to cost more and you don't want to pay more.
And look, there is an argument to be made and I've heard it made many times and there is a
compelling aspect to it, but it's tricky, which is what? Our best national security,
okay, is to make everything here and only buy our own stuff. But economically, it gets tricky
because, sorry, so you're paying more and things cost more. But then what does that do in terms of
inflation rate and currency value and savings rate, which is ridiculously low anyway.
But if you only bought stuff that you make
and you don't need anybody else,
it's very safe for you.
But it's not a reality in a global economy
when there's such inefficiencies that way.
You can get things cheaper outside
and obviously you're okay with it.
Because that's why it exists.
If Americans refuse to buy things from abroad
because they wanted stuff that was made by Americans
who were given a living wage,
then the correction would take care of itself
and people would start making things here
and paying people to make it here
because that's the only way they could sell it.
But that's not what we buy.
What am I missing?
There's a little irony here.
Do you remember a few months ago
there was that dock worker strike that had to be resolved
and people were starting to hoard toilet paper.
They were going out and buying all the toilet paper.
Well, it turns out that nobody needed to hoard toilet paper
because something like 90% of it
is made in the United States.
So it's this converse thing of like
even the things that people worry,
oh no, I'm not gonna be able to have this,
I better stock up on it.
It's like, well, you're actually stocking up
on the one thing that's made in the US
because it makes no sense to make this anywhere else
because we use so much of it and it's all,
you know, we have plenty of force,
I can produce this stuff, like it's a domestic product.
So look, sometimes perspective,
perception is not always reality, okay?
It is in politics.
Perception wins over reality all the time.
And this is an example of it.
That it feels satisfying to say,
yeah, keep these people out.
Let those jobs be here.
And Ian says, yeah, I'm happy paying for more,
paying more for those things.
I don't think most people are.
And I look, I also think that it is,
it's minimizing the real challenge for our leaders
in terms of our economy.
The real challenge is to train our workers
to do jobs that are higher paying jobs in our economy,
create more of those jobs and create more people
who are able to do those jobs that make more money.
I mean, that's the real solution, more pie. Instead of who gets this slice of the pie,
make a bigger pie. More jobs that are high paying jobs. Encourage industries where that is what is
happening there. How? Why? I don't have the answers to this. I'm in the business of asking
questions and scrutinizing and testing power. But that should be the bar for leadership
instead of just blaming illegals.
Because, okay, there's no more illegal labor.
Who's gonna do those jobs?
Oh, well, these guys will.
Really?
They're gonna make a fraction of what they're making now?
They're gonna start paying three times
what they're paying now for things?
I don't think so.
That has not been the history in America.
See, people leave that part out. Why?
It's not as satisfying.
And you have to discern.
That's critical thinking.
Sounds good. Get rid of them.
Yes, America's work.
You know that the unemployment rate is almost at a record low, right?
Most economists believe we're almost at full employment, right?
Means that the people who can work and who want to work are working. So what does that tell you?
You need labor. You need new blood. Either you're going to make it with babies or you're going to
bring it in or both. It sounds good, doesn't mean it is good. Same episode, AlSavesDemocracy writes,
the scariest thing in America is watching people like C. Cuomo
sane washing Trump and helping him get elected.
Oh, please.
Listen, at what point are you going to realize
that people know who Trump is and what he is
and what he has done?
They're not electing him to be their daddy
or to date their mom or to take care of their kid
or to be in business with them.
They are picking him to be a disruptor of a system
that they are more concerned about
than any of his personal foibles.
Don't you get it?
I'm not sane washing him.
Who criticizes Trump more than I have?
Come on with my platform.
Give me a break.
I'm one of the only anchors in the media who will tell you outright, personally, I've
had beef with him for calling me an enemy of the state and making life hard for my wife
and my kids.
I had to move because of that bullshit.
And he knew about it and he continued doing it anyway.
That's my beef, but I still cover him fairly.
Why?
Because I care more about the people who voted for him
and that he is now in control of again,
in terms of our collective fate,
then I do my personal problem with him.
It's not the job to just judge people
on the basis of how I feel about them.
It's about what they mean in society and what the issues are for the collective. Not just me. I'm not stain washing Trump. I'm not now a Trump or I haven't been red-pilled.
It's all bullshit. But I gotta be hopeful that he does better this time.
I want good things for the country. I want progress. Don't you?
To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot
ash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future
resources company.
This is from your take on Mark Zuckerberg's wonderful suite of apps, ending fact checking
programs.
CLI3335 wrote, as an Australian, I'm so thankful to the government for banning social media
to under 16.
Yeah, me too.
I mean, look, I think it's way out in front of us.
I think that we're overwhelmed
in a way that television never was.
You know, my generation of parents,
my parents called the boob tube
and they were so worried about TV.
It was nothing compared to these kids with these phones.
And here's why.
I didn't watch TV and watch a movie at the same time.
I didn't have to watch TV while I was doing anything else.
These kids can't watch a movie without their phone.
They wanna look at their phone while they're playing catch.
It's how they spend every other moment.
You know, I saw this comedian the other day talking about
how we never heard the word mindfulness
when I was growing up
because you had plenty of moments of being mindful, alone waiting for something.
You know what I mean?
Walking somewhere, getting somewhere, waiting for a bus, waiting for a train.
We had moments where we were just thinking, just alone with our thoughts.
You don't have that anymore.
I am good with a ban.
And I get why a lot of parents aren't going to like it.
A lot of parents don't like that they take the phones in schools.
I think that's crazy.
I love it.
It has changed every measurable performance dynamic in my kid's school.
It's a good thing.
Why?
This is a drug.
And it is fucking up how they deal with one another how they think about themselves and
Creating this huge basis of false understanding about the world and dynamics from sex and love
To how you're supposed to look to how you're supposed to be
I have no problem with it being banned if I could go back and do one thing differently as a parent
I would have fought for my one thing differently as a parent,
I would have fought for my kids to not have a phone as long as possible. Not a phone, social
media access, internet access for as long as possible. You give me an age, I think the kids
better off without it. Seriously, right into college, I think they're better off without it.
I cannot even make a case that the pluses are
anywhere near what the negatives are. This is from your predictions for 2025. Brennan Rateni writes,
I don't really get the hate boner Cuomo has for Rogan. Every chance he gets, he takes shots at him.
Rogan stays at number one in podcasts this year. Maybe maybe not. I don't have a hate boner for him,
which is a weird pseudo sexual thing.
Well, a couple of people have said things along those lines.
Kroma17 said,
Cuomo never fails to try to throw a jab at Rogan.
Stop listening to the episode as soon as I heard that.
And Umkay replied,
well, as soon as you remove Rogan's cock from your mouth,
maybe you can join the adults.
So a lot of, a lot of sexually explicit.
Well, if I have his cock in my mouth.
No, I think the cock is in the commenter's comment.
I think you're saying that
Crooma17 has the cock in their mouth.
Look, I am not a Rogan hater.
I respect his success.
I think he says a lot of things that are ignorant
and that he's advancing a lot of things
that he should not a lot of things.
From time to time, he advances something
he shouldn't given his platform.
What I respect is, he's kind of like the Trump
of digital media where people don't just listen to him
or watch him.
I don't believe he's a thought leader.
I believe you watch him because you identify with him
and he is symbolic for people. So you believe that watch him because you identify with him and he is symbolic for people.
So you believe that I'm insulting you
when I'm critiquing him.
And I get that, I just don't give a shit how you feel.
What I care about is what matters to everybody,
not just those who have a cult following for Rogan.
I respect his success.
I don't agree with you that he's going to
be at the top this year. I think that better talent is going to get involved. And I think
that there's going to be, and I mean, look, it's already happening. I mean, Kelsey's wife
came out of the box and was challenging Rogan. Why? Because the zeitgeist has caught on now
that digital media is a place where you can get traction.
And I think you're going to see a different level of talent get into it.
You know, Joe Rogan has many things. He has never been a top talent, right?
He's not a top comic. He wasn't a top host on television.
He is a great and I would argue top MMA fight analyst.
I think he's great, very entertaining.
But I think that people are gonna overtake him.
And is that what I want?
No, not necessarily.
I mean, it doesn't bother me what Rogan is doing.
From time to time it does and I speak about it,
but I don't hate him and I admire his success
and I wish him more of it.
I can want him to be successful
and think that someone's gonna catch him and pass him
because I think there's gonna be better than what he offers.
Cause I think the main value of what he offers
are the guests, not his input.
I saved this for last in your 2024 year in review episode,
we went over some of the biggest stories of 2024.
One of them was the big solar eclipse.
And I gave you an anecdote about how my neighbor
came upstairs and they used a colander to watch the shadow
instead of looking through those eclipse classes.
And you, for some reason,
didn't like me using the word colander.
You said you wanted to use the word strainer or something.
And you kept, yeah.
So there's a lot of replies about this.
Christopher Benson, 2634 says, Cuomo, anyone with kitchen awareness knows it's a lot of replies about this. Christopher Benson, 2634 says,
Quomo, anyone with kitchen awareness knows it's a colander.
J.Q. Lawrence says, Chris, you're wrong on this one.
A colander and strainer are different tools.
39 Zonk says it's a colander for goodness sake.
Cynthia Geskies, 1457 says, I call it a colander.
R.Loraro, 6844, some people still call it a colander,
Chris,
especially in New York State.
Corian Hernandez, 4,449, writes, I call it a colander.
Richard in Japan, 4,578.
The difference between a colander and a strainer
is the size of the holes.
Also, a strainer is generally designed
such that it can be used with one hand,
whereas a colander usually requires both hands to use.
An Italian-
I get it. I get that you guys have Google.
Several points.
One, great example of how people are so desperate for gotchas.
And now the second point,
do you know that if I had said that on TV,
a reporter would now have the basis of a hit piece based on 10 people on social media who
say that I shouldn't have said something, which is my biggest problem with the media's interaction
with social media, is that we've decided this is Vox Populi when I'm just fucking around with Greg,
the combination of your desperation to be relevant and play gotcha and the media's desperation to be negative and have fodder without they can say, well, it's not me, but online they're upset about what you said.
Ten people. And I don't believe that people say colander as much as they say other things.
It's a different tool. The one person was saying.
First of all, did you even know that it's a different tool?
Yes, a strainer and a colander.
Oh, really?
Yes, there's a handle on one of them.
You thought they were different things
because you said on the episode,
people call it either thing.
Yeah, because they-
But now you're saying they're different things.
Because I think not everybody understands
the distinction between the two things.
So I think people think it's interchangeable,
but it is two separate tools for the kitchen,
which a lot of these people are getting at.
You never said they were two separate tools.
But-
And you know you didn't think about that at the time, and now lot of these people are getting at. You never said they were two separate tools.
And you know you didn't think about that at the time. And now you're using it because it's to your advantage.
But now you're trying to do a gotcha to me.
You're trying to make it seem like I'm the asshole
trying to like, give myself out of some jam.
I am the asshole.
That's my job.
I think there's no asshole.
You didn't know that they're two different things.
You wouldn't have separated them.
You thought it was about just words you use.
They are two different things.
Listen, the sides of the holes doesn't matter to me.
No, but that's what, well, it should.
It should to a lot of people.
In Italian, a colander is generally called a scola pasta
and is generally intended to simply drain liquids.
Whereas a strainer has a sieve construction.
It is intended to filter out small solids
as well as liquid.
People use them interchangeably all the time,
not just as vernacular, but as kitchen
tools.
And, you know, look, we have many problems, okay?
One of them is judgment.
And not just discerning judgment, critical thinking, but social media has driven an addiction,
a consumption, an obsession with judging others.
It's kind of why daytime TV took off.
The desire to see others and judge them.
And this idea, you don't know what happens in the kitchen,
you don't know what happens if you don't have insurance.
Like you guys know me and know my life and know my experience.
Well, you've always been rich.
You're a rich guy.
You don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
And that's okay, because I signed up for your judgment.
I signed up.
See, I don't get like I used to disagree with Don Lemon about this all the time.
You don't get to sign up to be public facing and say shit. And then when people say shit back to you, say I'm offended, or you don't get to sign up to be public facing and say shit.
And then when people say shit back to you, say,
I'm offended or you don't get to say that,
or you don't get to come on here or that's out of bounds.
I think that bar's gotta be super high
because this is what you signed up for.
You signed up to be weighed and measured.
I get measured minute by minute.
I signed up for it, I'm okay with it.
I just find it lacking in substance and
usefulness. Like who gives a shit about what I said about a colander? All the
things that we're talking about, that's what you pick on. Why? Because that's where
your head is. I would have never remembered that conversation if he didn't,
you know, start going through comments about it. And I think that we are easily
distracted in this society in general. if he didn't, you know, start going through comments about it. And I think that we are easily distracted
in this society in general.
MUSIC
Greg Ott, I love you.
Thank you very much for going through these with me.
Everybody, I appreciate the comments.
I appreciate the questions.
Even if I don't agree,
even if I don't like a perspective,
doesn't mean that I don't value the input. I don't like a perspective, doesn't mean that I
don't value the input. So thank you very much. Thank you for subscribing and following here at
The Chris Cuomo Project. It is a project because it's a collaboration. We're working on it together
and there's a lot of work to be done. Independent, critical thinkers, free agents, wear your
independence, get the gear, feel any way you want to feel and tell me about it. We're both free
agents. Doesn't mean we're going to agree. In fact, it means we are free to disagree.
I'll see you on NewsNation, AP and 11P, every weekday night.
And one simple thought.
A lot of problems coming at us.
Same approach for all of it.
Let's get after it.