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NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo tore into Sen. John Kennedy on Tuesday night after the Republican lawmaker canceled an interview at the last minute, calling the Louisiana senator a “coward” who made a “punk a** move” by bailing on their sitdown.
After kicking off his primetime show by talking about President Donald Trump directing the Justice Department to free election-denying Colorado clerk Tina Peters, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for her role in a voting systems breach, Cuomo then turned his attention to Kennedy for no-showing.
“You want to make the election system more secure, great. You want to fight over voter ID, and you think that's going to make it better, great. Do it. But trafficking in this is part of what's killing us all right, so I wanted to talk about it tonight and other things with a guy I really liked bringing on,” the host said. “Let me make sure his guy didn't text me with some kind of apology before I bash him.”
After making sure that Kennedy or his office had texted him an explanation, Cuomo talked about how he’s been a fan of the Republican in the past for his “folksiness” before mockingly impersonating Kennedy’s exaggerated Southern accent.
“Well, then he went kind of full MAGA. I don’t know about that. I think that he makes a good case on a lot of things, and I think he has a real populist feel for himself,” Cuomo grumbled. “He hears that I’m talking about Peters, they pull him out. He doesn’t even call me himself. He just bails. Mr. Man’s Man, Mr. ‘I’m a straight shooter.’”
The former CNN star then proceeded to rip the conservative lawmaker for several more minutes, specifically taking aim at Kennedy’s self-made reputation as a no-nonsense truth teller, while also mocking him for his reliance on right-wing media.
“Then it comes time to speak truth to power, and he bails five minutes before the TV show, which is very poor form. I've been in this business a really long time, and nobody does that unless they're a coward,” Cuomo seethed. “And now look, you can go on Newsmax and you can go on Fox and you can badmouth me. I'm giving you an opportunity to come on here and have a conversation. Alright, I'm not here to smash and bash.”
At the same time, Cuomo insisted that this wasn’t a partisan issue, adding that if a Democrat had done the same thing to him that he would react in the same manner.
“But to bail, what a punk a** move that is to do something like that. And it is a great indication of where we are today that these men and women are more afraid of getting caught saying something that will offend the president than any kind of duty, any kind of morality, any kind of philosophy, any kind of principle that they want you to believe they are about,” he fumed. “They are about nothing but fealty.”
Cuomo continued: “And yeah, it's not just one side, but I'm talking about one side right now. And if a lefty, if a Democrat, bailed on me in the same way, I would bash them the same way, because they are part of the problem, and that's what we're doing at NewsNation.”
In the end, the NewsNation host made it clear that he was hoping that his rant about Kennedy would go viral and draw a lot of coverage.
“And I hope this clip gets out there and gets spread around,” Cuomo exclaimed. “And I hope Kennedy has the dignity and the integrity to reach out to me to explain this, tell me how I have it wrong because you bail on my show because you're too much of a coward to make a case, unless you're on Fox News getting some laugh track behind you when you're talking about these talking points. It's not what this country is supposed to be about.”
Representatives from Kennedy’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
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