Chris Cuomo Bashes CNN’s Centrist Move: ‘I Don’t Believe in Middle Ground’

“I don’t like the idea,” the former CNN host said

Chris Cuomo (Getty Images)
Getty Images

Former CNN host Chris Cuomo isn’t a fan of his former employer’s centrist move as he bashed the new direction on Kara Swisher’s new podcast released Monday.

“I don’t like the idea that they’re saying they’re going to be more middle ground,” Cuomo said on the first episode of “On With Kara Swisher” podcast. “I think a lot of people in the media like to see CNN go down because it was so powerful. And they tried to make that happen because I believe that that’s what our business is often about, is tearing things down as a negativity as a proxy for insight, but I don’t believe in middle ground.”

The NewsNation host also admitted the shift is tied to “new ownership [who] had some reservations or concerns” about the organization’s messaging. Cuomo’s comments follow suspicion that billionaire media mogul John Malone, who happens to be one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s biggest stakeholders, was behind the cancelation of Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources.”

Instead of a middle ground, Cuomo believes “there’s left and right and then there’s reasonable and usually the three are very distinguishable from one another.”

On the other hand, though, the former host says he’s “always been nonpartisan,” despite Swisher noting that Cuomo “spent years bashing Trump.”

“I gave then Donald Trump and then President Trump a fair hearing. If he said things that were demonstrably false, which he did frequently, I called it out because of how it erodes trust and it’s a crisis,” he said, calling out the misinterpreted reaction to Trump’s election lies in which some believe that “Fox defended him and CNN attacked him” a “bulls— analysis.”

“I didn’t go after his kids and call names and all,” he continued, noting that he hosted Kellyanne Conway and more of “his people” on his show. “I gave him his best case.”

While Cuomo rejects that going after Trump in this case “makes [him] a lefty,” he also notes that those who look at his critical comments regarding the left might see him as a “righty.” In reality, though, the host wants to scrap the two-party system all together after noting that it’s “killing us.”

“I want more parties,” he said. “I want rank choice voting. I want term limits in Congress, and I want electors apportioned by the states that matter. Is that right or left or is it reasonable? I want more parties. I don’t care about the left and the right. I think it’s killing us.”

Cuomo also shared his thoughts on the lawsuit against Trump recently brought forward by New York Attorney General Letitia James by questioning why criminal charges haven’t been pursued by the New York DA, SDNY or the IRS.

“He’s going to say you are victimizing him,” Cuomo said of Trump. “And we have to examine it very carefully, especially where Trump is involved. Because every time you swing and miss, it erodes confidence.”

As for if Cuomo would ever return to CNN if he was asked back, he implied he is focused on future pursuits, saying “I’m moving forward.”

Comments