The Chris Cuomo Project - How Diddy’s Case Could Be Bigger Than Epstein or Weinstein

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Chris Cuomo delves into the ongoing case of Sean “Diddy” Combs and the potential culture of exploitation involving power and wealth. He draws parallels to other high-profile cases like those of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, questioning the broader implications of society’s tolerance toward such behavior. Cuomo stresses the importance of uncovering the truth, seeking transparency, and urging a cultural shift away from enabling predatory practices. 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 AG1 Try AG1 and get a FREE bottle of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase at drinkAG1.com/ccp That’s a $48 value for FREE. Check it out  Cozy Earth  Go to cozyearth.com/CHRIS and use code CHRIS for an exclusive discount of up to 40% off. If you get a post-purchase survey, say you heard about Cozy Earth from The Chris Cuomo Project podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think it's time to start freaking out about what we don't know about this Diddy situation. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to The Chris Cuomo Project. I don't think we've ever seen anything like this. I've been trying to get my hands around it, and I've never had a situation hands around it. And I've never had a situation where we've got the big name. Sean, Diddy, whatever, I know he's changed his nickname like a million times, but I kind of know why. This guy's been in the reinvention of badness business for a really long time, evidently. So if we have him, why does it seem that the story is still much bigger?

Now at first, I wrote it off as the bogeyman principle, like with Epstein. You know, you don't get the full story on Epstein. It is much more provocative to say someone killed him because of exactly what I'm talking about with Diddy, that there had to be more, right? Because remember what the commodity is. The commodity is as old as society, which is the they, the power

brokers, the establishment, the elite, whatever you want to call them. They used to be called the bourgeoisie. Okay? Every society has gone through this, that there are people in power that you don't know about that have the hand, the hand of influence that makes everything happen, that fucks you over, that is this world that you don't know but you're greatly influenced by. It's always worked, it's always worked. And it has always been true to varying degrees, but almost always with a principle of mitigation

beyond what you're being sold. And we are there again. And it reminds me of Harvey Weinstein in a way, but more troubling on a level. How? Epstein, Weinstein, Diddy. What is the common thread? People with power through access, wealth, which helps connect to power, who are able to do shit that we find not only frightening

and disgusting and illegal, but perverse. And the perversity matters. Weinstein is not just allegedly another rapist, but it was a culture. You know the casting couch? You know, we've all heard of that. This is what makes that boogeyman so real. And there's this, there are two added layers.

One is, and everybody knows, and there are a lot of people that you know and care about, but they've never told you, right? And then there is this, and it's always been okay until now, right? Those are the ingredients. Epstein, Weinstein, and now Diddy. And am I being unfair to Diddy? Maybe in part because we don't know yet, we don't know yet as we did with Weinstein.

And by the way, I know that there's a chapter of the Weinstein story that nobody's covering, which is that he may get out of it. Why? Because cultural conclusions are different than adjudication. What does that mean? Your decision to feel a certain way

because of what I tell you about a situation is different than what I can demonstrate but beyond a reasonable doubt. That's a 95 plus, you know, this is an important thing for you to know. What does beyond a reasonable doubt mean? Man, that's hard. That means that no other explanation of what is at hand

makes as much sense as the prosecutors. And by makes as much sense, that means that you believe that there is a 95% plus chance that what the prosecutor is saying is the truth. That's high, okay? That's high. An indictment is probable cause. That means that what the prosecutor is presenting

to a grand jury, which matters, it's not just what he came up with himself. He presents it to a panel of people, 12, 15, 20, it depends on the jurisdiction and the issue, but that it's reasonable. What does that mean? 12, 15, 20, depends on the jurisdiction and the issue. But that it's reasonable. What does that mean? That based on evidence that the prosecutor picks, some of which may not even be admissible at trial,

without any pushback from any defense at all, is this probable? What does that mean? 50-50? No, less, Less. 30%. Yeah, it could have been. This could have happened and it could have been him or her or them or it. That's the standard.

Pretty low. Hence the expression, you can indict a ham sandwich. Now if the criminal burden is high, what does that tell us about these situations? And how can Weinstein get off if what he did was so terrible? Because proving it is different than believing it. Now, are you saying that he didn't do it? No. I'm saying from all we know,

he did do it and the it is a lot. But there seems to be so much more about who knew and who allowed it and who else did it. See we fall short, we stop short rather. Well it's both right? We fall short and we stop short. We fall short because we stop short because we run out of interest. Me too was the same thing. They went after all the bold face names in the media because that was easiest, let's be honest.

But you think it's not happening with corporations and people who are assistants in the middle of the country, who aren't just part of entertainment? You don't think that we haven't had generations of women who have had to deal with things that were unfair in the companies and in the places and in the spaces that don't matter to you because they don't have boldface names in the spaces that don't matter to you

because they don't have bold-faced names? Really? You don't think the problem exists more there than in these other places, than in the media where we have some of the most empowered female positions in industry? You think it's worst in the place where women have the most representation and power?

I don't. I don't. I think it's worse in a lot of places that nobody gives a shit about, where nothing has ever changed. Because we didn't even demand change in the entertainment business. You got your pound of flesh,

you took out your boldface names, but what has changed when it comes to how women have procedures and culture that allows them, or men too, to say what's happening without having to go to HR and blow up everybody and blow themselves up. Not really, not that much has changed. I don't know about where you work, but I don't see it.

So now we're fed into another one of these situations. Epstein got written off as who killed him and why, and it just ends there. And I got to tell you the analysis of the cameras and who saw and who didn't see and who, a lot of that has been exaggerated and twisted perversely for effect. If I had to put money on what happened with Epstein, it's that he killed himself. And that the holes in that story are being held open for advantage more than they are reasonable. But that doesn't take away the curiosity. Weinstein too.

So basically you must have had a culture of ignoring things that are terrible. And now I think we have that more than ever potentially with Diddy. Why haven't I ever seen the Bieber video with Diddy, Odell Beckham Jr. and Bieber. Have you seen that video? That does not look good, what's happening in that. How old was Bieber? Why was he down there? What was going on? How did I miss that? Now, this other one of Bieber in the back of the car, pretending to be really crazy and counting his fingers, I'm told he's play-acting in that. You're not hearing that on social media.

That clips all over the place with people using it to advantage. Why? Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. People don't give a fuck about telling you the truth. They wanna make hay, they wanna be relevant. That woman on TikTok, she knows everything about Diddy. Fuck she does.

Of course she doesn't know everything about Diddy. She's just creating a following and doing whatever does that. Do I fault her? Really, why? Because I don't hate the player, I hate the game. Yeah, but if you didn't have the players pushing it, then the game, I don't know about that.

And as long as there are enough of us who reward it, why wouldn't you get into it? But based on what we know, and did he put together what he's calling the new dream team? What does that tell you? You ever see New Jack City? New Jack City, you've got Wesley Snipes,

plays a character called Nino Brown. And when they finally have him, and he's dragged in as the drug dealer, he's like, he stands up. He's like forget it. If I'm going down, everybody's coming with me. And everybody in the courtroom would been sitting there watching his thing.

They get up and they'll go no. That's what I think is going to happen here. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from ground news. is going to happen here. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Ground News. Now listen, I'm a news guy. Why am I pitching a different source? Because I don't play that game. That's why.

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please, you care about your health, check it out. Now, there's something that matters to me more than the road I'm going down right now, which is who else? Who else? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Because a lot of that is really, really feeding the wrong things, which is what? Let's see more people who's supposed to be better than maybe shit. Let's see them destroyed. That's cool. Oh, I hope it's true. Yeah, I do, but you know,

they've gotten so much anyway, right? Let's be honest. That's part of it. That's part of it. That's part of making it okay. That as long as it's a big person who gets shit on, there's something kind of satisfying in that.

But that's not what it is for me. We are dealing with the worst kind of exploitation, okay? Sexual exploitation is always dangerous and damaging. I know, spare me the boy-girl dynamics and sexuality is a commodity and women have been selling this and men have been giving value for that. I know, I know. But just as it has always bothered me that the prostitute goes to jail and the John doesn't, similarly we have flipped that and maybe we flipped it too much in order to get the real

level of accountability we want, which is to change what's okay. All the Johns get punished and none of the prostitutes get punished. That's not the fix. The fix is to make it so that women don't need to sell themselves. And look, I'm also open and I covered it. And I remember Diane Sawyer did some great work on this. I totally get it. If you want to sell yourself as a man or a woman, as an adult, that's your choice. I get it. Now, you could make the case that anybody who makes that choice is

damaged and abused and sick. Okay. But we've been dealing with this dynamic for a long time. But we've been dealing with this dynamic for a long time. The part that I want to focus on is people who don't have the ability or the wherewithal to make the choice. What the Diddy story could be about is a culture that was not only ignored, not only or not merely enabled, but celebrated by dozens and dozens of people who you put on high. That is what I am afraid the Diddy situation is becoming and I gotta tell you,

Suge Knight came on my show, blew up the internet. Why? Because I let him speak. Well, why did you let him speak? Because that's what the media does. Yeah, but you didn't check any of his allegations. How would I check them?

They're coming in real time from a guy in prison who happened to be living that life that is being exposed in the Diddy investigation. How can you say Suge Knight doesn't know what he's talking about? This is a demonstrably bad guy who did bad things in the exact culture that we're examining. And by the way,

in words, with words that I never thought I would say, in defense of Suge Knight, have you heard Diddy or his representatives come out and say everything he said about him is untrue? Me neither. And we've asked for comment. Clive Davis's guys came out and said, none of this ever happened. Okay, so now we gotta wait for meat on the bones.

The idea that Diddy was sexually abused by people and then became an abuser is really interesting to me. Why? Because that is absolutely true about abuse in general. Why is it that pedophiles are most often straight males? I know the Catholic Church wanted you to believe something else, that they wanted you to believe that there's something inherently perverse about a gay man. But the untold story within the Catholic Church when it came to that was that many of the cases were aphibophilia, not pedophilia. What is that? Pedophilia is kids, aphibophilia is teens. And there were cases where adult males, priests,

had sexual relations with teenage boys and girls. And that that is different than a six-year-old. 16-year-old is different than a six-year-old. Maybe, I think they're both wrong, especially by a supposed moral agent. But the connective tissue of all of these different scandals, I think all relates to this ditty situation. I think we're dealing with a situation here

that is not about one guy who's got a weird thing for baby oil. I think it is much bigger than that and not gratuitously so like Epstein or Weinstein where it's just click on this because I'm going to bullshit you about how this relates all the way to the top echelons of American whatever. It's not what it is for me. It's that this is what we should care about most, which is where people with power, money, access, are allowed to do things to underage or unconsenting men, women, boys, girls. And people know and allow them to be rewarded and elevated regardless. Now, I'm not talking about A has sex with B and then decides that they can take advantage

of A by saying that it wasn't really consensual and then they get paid and better. I get that that dynamic exists. I get that sometimes it's true and sometimes it's not true. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a guy who was all over the place, like Weinstein, like Epstein, except Diddy is the biggest star. He's way bigger than Weinstein was. This guy was put in movies. He was on every talk show.

He was running marathons. And now you see this other picture picture which is that everybody who knew anything and how weird it is when people say, I never saw it, I never heard it, I never saw it. How did we miss that video of Bieber with OBJ and Diddy? Where was I? When was it? How? How? Was that not everywhere? In this day and age? Where when you do something stupid, there's like ten people who have it on a camera? There's gotta be something there that keeps it quiet. That makes it go away. Oh, also, while I'm on the subject, as it were with Epstein and Weinstein, I don't have anything to do with

this. Neither does my brother. Okay? I mean, this is part of the dynamic I'm talking about. And look, I'm putting it out on recording. Connect me to Diddy. Connect me to Weinstein. Connect me to Epstein. I was never on a plane. I never met any of these guys. I don't know any of these people. I played basketball against Diddy in a league at the Reebok gym in, I don't knowstein. I was never on a plane. I never met any of these guys. I don't know any of these people. I played basketball against Diddy in a league at the Reebok gym. I don't know him. I never went to any of his parties. And by the way, if I had, so what? But I haven't. And people can just lie their asses off because that's okay these days. What's not okay to me What's not okay to me is the suggestion that this ditty thing may go bigger and deeper than anything we've ever seen before when we're talking about corrupt culture. I was all over the FBI for doing a raid like this and not releasing the information.

I am still on that, the same way I am with Adams, the same way I was during the Trump probe, the same way I was with all the bullshit about Hunter Biden. You have to give us the proof when you're going to make something criminally investigative of somebody who matters this much in our culture. Mayor Adams shouldn't be left out to dry. We need the proof.

As was true with Biden and Hunter Biden, not just suggestions of what's on the laptop. You either got it or you don't. And you don't. With Adams, either have it or you don't. I don't know. Oh yeah, but you gotta let due process. Yeah. Where's the speedy part of that?

Like in the Sixth Amendment. Why did we put in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, speedy trial? Because the allegations crush you. Where's the proof? Oh, you gotta be patient. While the guy's getting killed in the media. Who knew about Diddy? Who knew that it wasn't just white parties? Who knew that there were women and men, boys and girls

allegedly being fed tons of drugs where they couldn't consent. How many stories are there out there? How many people did deals with this guy, even though? Is that why his liquor deal went sideways? Siroc? Or however you say it. Support for The Chris Cuomo Project comes from 120 Life. It's a great tasting blend of super fruit juices. We're using it at home.

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Because he had the cultural cachet and they don't? I don't know. But this is a big deal. And that's why it's Rico. It's Rico because they are trying to do what they do with the mob, which is say, look, we can't catch you in everything because you got too many people

who are willing to take it to their grave, but we're gonna catch you doing a criminal thing that masked what an enterprise was supposed to be about. That's Rico. That's Rico. It comes from racketeering. What was a racketeer? A racketeer was someone who made a racket.

What is a racket? A racket is a lot of noise. It was a party during prohibition in a speakeasy, which means keep your voice down about what we're doing here. They got too loud so people knew you were making a racket. You were making noise at a party with booze and now we're going to come after you. And it's supposed to be a legitimate business, but this is what you're really doing. And that is where Rico comes from.

And here's where we are with Diddy. We don't know shit about how deep and how big this goes. And I want an explanation from Bieber and his people about that video. If it's just that he was fucked up at a party and he was crouching down and he got up, but if it is suggestive of a dynamic that he was fucked up at a party, and he was crouching down and he got up, but if it is suggestive of a dynamic that he was put in at an age and a stage

where he couldn't consent and exposed to behavior and to practices and habits that he couldn't handle or control, we need to know. Why? Because that's about who we are. If it's just crazy parties and a lot of baby oil and dildos, all right.

Nando gustibus desputandus est. What is that? A stroke? No, it's Latin. There's no disputing taste, man. What people like, what they're into, knock yourself out as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. But what if it does? And what if people know and they allow it to go on and they aggrandize the person who

doesn't? And they make believe that because they can get paid off that this person is worth you buying. And all along, there was this ever-growing web of people who were victimized and maybe paid off. Why did he think that Cassie wouldn't go public? Who told him that? What did they believe was true that was so untrue?

Did he really think that that videotape of that hotel lobby, hotel vestibule wasn't gonna get out? What else does he think isn't gonna get out? This ditty thing is the most troubling investigation that is getting the least public resonance of anything I've covered in the modern era. Think about it. It doesn't rate that well. It's not all over the media.

Part of that is because of what we're talking. I think there are two reasons. One, we don't like sex crimes. It's kind of icky. Don't want to hear about it. Very rarely do you see stuff about pedophiles on TV. Think about it. Second, maybe it's because he's black.

Maybe because he's black. Epstein, white, all white friends, white power people. Weinstein, white, a lot of white power people around him. Is this written off as a black thing? Shouldn't be. Unfair to black culture, unfair to black people, unfair to us. Because Diddy is about as big as you get

in American culture. Okay? Not just by money, but by cache. Who doesn't know? He's one of the one name people in our society, even though he keeps changing his name. Still one of the one name people. And I think there's way more than we don't know

than that we do. And I think that the answers matter. That's why I'm staying on it. Not because it's clickbait, because to be honest, it ain't clicking that well. But it matters because I think it's about what we are about as people and what we think is okay. I don't give a shit how much drugs you do. I really don't. I don't give a shit about what kind of sex life you have. We are a faux puritanical nation. What does that mean? Don't show a boob on TV

because we are a Christian nation. And then we expose more porn, more divorce, more deviance, per capita than anyone on the face of the planet. Faux puritanism. That ain't me. I am live and let live for real. I am non-judgmental for real. Why? Who am I to judge?

I'm a flawed, failed, right, feckless, constantly and desperately trying to get to a better place, and it ain't easy. So why would I judge you? Have sex the way you want to have sex, as long as it's legal, as long as you're not hurting anybody. And if you were doing those kinds of things, or you knew somebody else who were, would you just be quiet about it because you were getting paid?

Because you wanted to go to their parties? That's what I think we're dealing with here. Who goes to a party if they even have an inkling that this guy later on is going to drug people and do crazy shit? And by the way, I don't buy the videos that I've seen out there of him allegedly having sex with blah blah blah. I think they would have come out long before. Some of them, more subtly suggestive, like the Bieber OBJ diddy

thing, do demand explanation. Why aren't people chasing down OBJ? What was going on in the video? Don't say it's my private business, you are in public. So have an answer. No comment. Fuck that. Chase him. Don't give him opportunities until he answers it. Why? It matters. It matters. And not because it was consensual. If it was consensual, say it. That's not the issue for me. I don't judge what people do with their personal lives. I don't. And I think the less we care about it, the better. In our politicians, in our culture,

I think it's a distraction. I don't give a shit how you do you, I care about how you do me. If you're in a position of authority or influence, I don't care about what you're about, neither should you. This is bigger than that by all indications. The most, the quiet. Why is Suge Knight one of the only ones coming out?

Why is Fiddy Cent, Curtis whatever his name is, one of the only ones to be yip yapping about this? There's a lot more to know and it matters if we want to evolve as people. Not as gotchas, not as just chasing bold-faced names, not as a shame campaign. This is a federal investigation of somebody. They should be putting meat on the bones sooner than they would ordinarily,

because it matters more. This isn't some anonymous guy who's a grifter where you take your time and it works its way through the system. Due process, yes. Expedited. Let us know what you know. It matters because it's in the zeitgeist and it's getting spun for advantage that may be getting farther and farther from the truth. The ditty thing matters and I'm staying on it. Not because I wanna see Sean Combs go down, but because I wanna see what was this culture about brought up. That's what I want.

And I don't wanna hear, you know, for years there's been stories about Sean did and I had dismissed some of them, but now it seems like we... Nah, I don't believe you. Nah, I don't believe you. I never heard any of this shit but it's not my world. It's not my world. You asked me about Kamala Harris. I can tell you all kinds of stuff I've heard. You asked me about Donald Trump. I can tell you about all stuff I've heard. Well, you don't report a lot of it. Yeah, because I don't know if it's true and I don't know that it matters even if it is true.

Yeah, because I don't know if it's true, and I don't know that it matters, even if it is true. This is not my world, is now. I'm digging in deep. Suge Knight, Ray J, every funky name person that I can find who knows something about this that seems credible, that nobody knocks down afterwards, and if they do get knocked down afterwards, I will say that too.

It matters. It may matter more than any of the ones we've ever heard about before. And that should matter to you. Thank you for subscribing, following. Here NewsNation, 8P, 11P, every weekday night. It's going to be Diddy Watch because it's gotta be more than Diddy, because there are too many people that Diddy knew that seem to now wanna pretend

they didn't know about what was so obvious. So let's get after it.