The Chris Cuomo Project - Listener Comments: Tucker Carlson Fans, Pride Night, Live Show

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Chris Cuomo responds to more listener calls and YouTube comments about Tucker Carlson fans and Trump supporters watching Chris’ shows, whether he would ever appear on “Dancing With The Stars,” the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Pride Night controversy, and many more. If you’d like to ask Chris a question, call [phone]. Leave your name, location, phone number, email address, and your brief question, and it may be addressed in an upcoming show. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for me to respond to you. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to a special edition of the Chris Cuomo Project, where we do your comments and questions. It's all about being a critical thinker, being an independent thinker, and this is the chance to have the exchange, and that's what the project is about, right?

It's a joint effort, so let's get after it. get after it. The Chris Cuomo Project is supported by Cozy Earth. Why? Because I like their sheets. That's why. A lot of people don't get a good night's sleep for a lot of reasons. One of the ones that you can control is bedding. One out of three of us report being sleep deprived. Okay, well, what is it? Well, it stresses all kinds of things. But the wrong sheets can make you hot, can make you cold. I'm telling you, I don't even believe it either. But Cozy Earth sheets breathe. And here's what I love about them.

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You'll get details and important safety information. You're going to need a subscription. It's required. Plus, price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan. Okay, we're going to start off with comments from our YouTube channel here. Jacob D. writes, what do you think about Tucker Carlson and Trump supporters like me that watch and enjoy your show? Be honest. You're welcome. Come again. You know, again, the antagonism flows from your boys to me, not the other way.

And have I been critical of things that Trump and Carlson have said? Yeah, with reason. Do I think the same can be said for them? No, not to the same degree. I think most of the things that Tucker Carlson said about me were childish and gratuitous and done just to make people like you feel better about not liking me because of what he wants you to think that I represent. Now, that said, did I take joy in him being perceived to suffer? And I put it in quotes because I don't know that he did. I don't like that he lost his job. I think you should be making those decisions.

I think that if what somebody is saying is repugnant, then it should be seen in its lack of popularity. And he's plenty popular. So I really believe you let the people decide. I am not about deplatforming or censorship, which is what I think deplatforming is. I think that you let the people decide. You let the people decide. And I don't wish him any ill. I don't want him to say things that damage our dialogue or put other people at risk, make people angry for bad reason. I don't like that, but that doesn't mean that I wish him anything bad. I just, I don't believe in that.

I just, I think that if you have a better idea, argue the idea, beat the idea. Don't destroy the person because you don't like their idea. This is from your video about Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson being fired from cable news. Mary Jean Neals writes, Chris, do you read the comments? Do you care what we think? Or is this about you preaching? During the pandemic, we all bonded with you and Don. I miss you both. Not crazy about Trump TV or they call it CNN. I'm no preacher, okay? I'm not selling you anything. CNN. I'm no preacher, okay? I'm not selling you anything. I don't have an agenda. I don't have a message. I appreciate the opportunity that a growing number of you give me to do what I think

matters in the interest of building up your own intellectual arsenal and helping you be critical thinkers and to process the world around, and the dynamics. Trump TV. CNN did what was in the interest of the country, which I believe required from the media a muscularity in combating unprecedented hostility and mendacity from somebody who sought power and then had power. Donald Trump abused the truth, abused decency in a way that I have never seen in America before. Now, your response as a Trumpophile is, oh, yeah, but what about, I don't want to hear it. First, accept the premise. Then we'll talk about accommodation. But the answer has to be, well, but what about Joe Biden? What about Joe Biden? Which by the way, a guy who was never held up as some pillar of integrity or of the paragon of public service, he is a relative assessment. He was a referendum

on Trump. The reason you got Biden is because that's how bad Trump was in the eyes of this country. So the idea that, oh, they should have been doing the same thing to Democrats, Democrats were not in the position of power nor abusing the norms the way Trump was when he was being checked for the same. Now, you can say, yeah, well, you should have felt like that about the dossier. I don't see this as apples to apples, okay? And also, I'm not the guy, okay? Go back and look at my reporting about what I thought of the impeachment process and what I thought it was going to lead to

and what I thought the considerations were for the American people, okay? You got the wrong guy, all right? But this idea that, oh boy, you just had it out for Trump. You just hated Trump. One, I don't hate anybody. And I'm not giving you a PC answer.

That is a lot of power to give someone. To let them have that kind of control over how you feel. That you literally are putting energy towards hoping something bad happens to somebody else. I do as much as I can to not do that, all right? And do I take offense to the former president putting my family in the crosshairs? Oh, yeah.

I've said that to him. Did I go after him gratuitously? Absolutely not. If anything, the deficiency was on the side of how many things I let go by. Like flooded the zone, that guy. It was like too many balls coming at you. So would I do it the same way again?

I wouldn't do anything the same way twice. I think you can always do things better. I think I did the right thing covering my illness. I don't think it was the right thing by me or my family. I don't think it helped my recovery. I don't think it helped my family. I think I exposed them to too much. I'm not talking about the virus, but the attention. But it was the right thing for you. It was the

right thing for the coverage at the time. So I'm okay with that. And I've never done anything in my 25 plus years for all the loose side I've won and the trophies and the ratings and the rewards financially or status-wise. I've never received feedback the way I did for the reporting I did during the pandemic and frankly, the conversations with my brother. That's just the truth. I've never had regular people thank me for anything else collectively as much as for those. So look, I'm not a preacher

and I'm not someone who's out to get the former president. And if you watch my show at News Nation, I think you'll see that. And that hasn't changed from when I was at CNN. This is from your interview with Derek Hough. Would you ever do Dancing with the Stars if they asked you? Nope. Next.

Why not? I feel like you were talking about how athletic it is. You do the Alvin Ailey workout. Like, I feel like- It's very hard. Yeah, so why- Much respect. Why would you not do that?

Because I exist in a system where people would only use it against me. And I almost certainly would win. No, I would almost certainly lose. And I'm good for now with people gratuitously finding reasons to attack my family. What about some other like game show or something? Maybe on Celebrity Jeopardy? I don't see real upside. Okay. This is from your most recent walk-in talk, Just Having Fun, writes, I followed you for a long time. It's so very clear that you are struggling. Everyone struggles in their own way. I don't mean to minimize your struggles, but I've watched people I care about struggle to pay the next electric bill.

Those people can't possibly relate to your broken window, quote, struggle. You are still fortunate. You are right and wrong at the same time. And I think this is important. You need to check yourself here. And here's why. Don't you judge anybody else's pain. All pain is personal. The idea that other people have it worse is unsatisfying and unhelpful and inaccurate, okay? Because one person's capacity and their perspective is totally different than another's. For one person, having COVID could be like the worst thing that ever happened to them in their lives and it shapes everything they do from thereafter. And someone else could fight breast cancer

and barely tell anybody and soldier through and people don't even know. It's all personal. So you wanting me to say, hey, I got a lot better than other people. Okay, but what does that mean? Well, to you, it means that I shouldn't want to have to struggle or feel a sense of suffering. Okay. That's you, not me. Oh yeah, but you should think the way I do and feel the way I do. No, thank you. No, that's you. You keep it for you and how you process

what happens in your life. You don't get to judge other people's struggles. Now, we allow too much of it in this society. I say, shut your mouth. And if you have people in your life who struggle to pay the power bill and you can help, do that. to pay the power bill, and you can help. Do that. Do that. Okay? Care about them and help them. Do that. Pointing it out to me that like, hey, you could be worse like these other people. How does that help me with what I have? Oh, yeah, I guess it could be worse. But it doesn't mean that what I'm dealing with doesn't matter to me in a way that creates negativity that I have to deal with. You need to check yourself about that. There's a lot of that in our society where you're not impressed by somebody else's problems. So what? Who cares what you think of somebody

else's struggle? If you can't help and it's not instructive to you of your own, move on. This is from that same video. Jennifer Smith writes, how do you know how old a fish is? You ask it. Oh. You check its license. They have different ways based on its size. It's kind of rough estimate, but not really.

They've been doing this a long time and marine biologists have a fair sense of it. And there's a graph that was online and that's what I went on. Last one from the Elon and Ron video, Spicy T writes, is it just me or is anyone else missing their old school hardcover Webster's dictionary right now? LOL. I don't get it. I think it's a compliment about your vocabulary. Oh, you know, I have recently, I haven't heard this in a while, but I've recently been told I use too many big words. I think it's impressive.

I would say that's probably right, but half the time they're words I've never heard or haven't used in my normal day-to-day life. So then I should probably change it. I actually have been intentionally changing my diction. And I do believe that it changes the economy of words. Or did I just violate the rule? It makes you use more words. I don't think economy was the big one people were tripping over. I don't know. Who knows what it is? I mean, really, it depends. I mean, there's so many people who take in what I do who are far beyond my level of sophistication

and intelligence that it's not a problem for any of them. I have a tendency to not undersell people. You know what I mean? To sell you short is thinking you're not going to know what regular words are or look up ones that you don't the way I do. I don't believe in talking down to the audience or assuming you don't know things or that you're stupid. I don't think that what I do is for the mouth breathers among us or simpletons who are just looking for someone to tell them what to think. So I don't think I'm giving you too much credit, but to the extent that I'm defeating the purpose of being clear in my communication because I'm giving you too much credit, but to the extent that I'm defeating the purpose of being clear in my communication, because I'm having you have to think about what I meant, because you don't know what I said, I respond to that. So I've actually been, I've been wording things differently.

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Over 40 years of age, 52% of us experience some kind of ED between the ages of 40 and 70. I know it's taboo. It's embarrassing. But it shouldn't be. Thankfully, we now have HIMS, and it's changing the vibe by providing affordable access to ED treatment, and it's all online. HIMS is changing men's health care. Why? Because it's giving you access to affordable and discreet sexual health treatments, and you do it right from your couch.

and discreet sexual health treatments. And you do it right from your couch. HIMS provides access to clinically proven generic alternatives to Viagra or Cialis or whatever. And it's up to like 95% cheaper. And there are options as low as two bucks a dose. HIMS has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers. So if ED is getting you down, it's time to pick it up. Start your free online visit

today at HIMS.com slash CCP. H-I-M-S dot com slash CCP. And you will get personalized ED treatment options. HIMS.com slash CCP. Prescriptions, you need an online consultation with a health care provider, and they will determine if appropriate. Restrictions apply. You see the website. You'll get details and important safety information. You're going to need a subscription. It's required. Plus, price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan.

Hello, Chris and company. This is Michelle from Southern California. This is what's giving me agita today. My beloved Dodgers have some controversy circling the Pride Night that they have coming up. I think it's great that they do these nights where they honor diversity, and they have a lot of, they have a Mexican Heritage Night, they have the Pride Night, they have Filipino Night, they the Pride Night, which is fine. I just want to see baseball. But the reason they're canceling it is because our friend Marco Rubio wrote a letter about the specific group, the Sisters of Perpetual something. Anyway, they like to sin. However, they do good things in the community they were going to be

recognized and i'm all for that i'm all for doing great things in the community what i don't like is that there's backlash now from the lgbtq community against the dodgers because they're canceling this event now isn't this like a two-sided coin or whatever the saying is? If the Catholics are offended by them, and I'm not a Catholic. I am a Christian, evangelical Christian. But I do understand how it could be extremely offensive to the people that are within the Catholic Church about these nuns that are in drag, pretty much. But what now I don't like is that because there's a group, the Catholics, that didn't like something,

now all of a sudden that's not okay. So other groups can become offended, but Catholics or Christians can't. I guess I'm just trying to understand the two sides of this. And the thing that's really bothering me is that there is a group of people that are wanting to like boycott my Dodgers. And I'm very upset now that this is affecting my baseball, is what I'm saying. Anyway, thanks again for everything you do. I've been watching you since the CNN days and continue to watch and love the progress. First, thank you very much for being so thoughtful about something that really could just be visceral, right? It could be just how your gut tells you to feel about it, but now you're thinking it through, and that's great.

And it's not easy, by the way. Of course, it's affecting baseball because this is culture. It's going to affect everything. And that's why we used to have that silly rule of you never talk religion or politics at the dinner table. Why? We don't want to go near divisive things. But you know, do you really want to hide from the reality? The problem is not that people don't want to be offended. Of course, they don't want to be offended. Everybody knows that you have the right to say offensive things in our society, but there's also a reciprocal right to go after people who are offensive to you and say things about them. Now, what we're doing with this cancel culture is doing more than a war of words and an argument that's a function of a marketplace of ideas. It's about consequences. Don't shop there anymore. Don't like the Dodgers. That person can't work

anymore. Get rid of them. And people justify it on the basis of what? Well, that's our right. We have the right to say these things should happen. And if they want our money and if they want our viewership, if they want our allegiance or whatever, they should listen to us. But who are the people crowdsourcing these consequences? What is their agenda? See, that's where it's getting skewed. And you have a situation where, you know, the sisters of perpetual indulgence get honored. Look, the Dodgers probably weren't fully aware of who they were honoring. Is this a group that advocates for

protecting minorities from religious persecution and for persecution by the religious? All right, that's one argument. You better make it because a lot of what they put up just seems to be shaming the religious. And you're going to honor them? Then you're probably going to have to pay for that. How much should you pay for it? I don't know. That's not for me to answer.

But I do see the dynamic as problematic. And as an evangelical Christian, I mean, you guys are very deep in this game of cancel culture and of going after people and wanting your faith to be as much a part of society as possible. And it seems to me politically that there's a persuasion of not wanting this to be a secular state. Even this idea of wanting to recognize that we're based on Judeo-Christian ethics and this, what I believe is sometimes inauthentic reliance on the founding fathers. Why do I say inauthentic? Because I think people cherry-pick it

and they're with the founding fathers when it works for them and they're not when they're not. But why do you think they went so out of their way as a group of almost unanimously or universally Christian men to not mention God or the role of religion except to explicitly proscribe it from having a role in government policy

in the formative documents. Why do you think? Why do you think they did that? Because this was supposed to be a secular society because they knew what happened when you get the influence of a theocracy. And I think that's really important to remember. And you see this hypocrisy.

I mean, you know, religion and hypocrisy often go hand in hand. I mean, we're all flawed. We're all sinners. We all rely on our faith to help us with our shortcomings. If people were perfect, you wouldn't need religion. And that's okay. But there is growing intolerance. And crowdsourced consequences of people motivating agendas by attacking people who disagree is a big thing going on.

And I think it's taken the teeth out of our media and made it much more of a petty gotcha machine than actually taking on the real arguments or real discussions we should be having. Because they'd rather just play the game. It's like we've all become the people who are surrounding the bully beating up on somebody. Because it's better to be there than be in front of the bully. I don't believe in that, even if it winds up costing me, even if it winds up making me unpopular and people are like, oh, you're on the wrong side because you're not on a side or whatever.

You're right to be frustrated. You're right to be annoyed. You're right to question the rationale of what's going on around you. And that's really the most important step is to be a critical thinker of what's being said and what's being on around you. And that's really the most important step is to be a critical thinker of what's being said and what's being done and why. So good for you. Hey, Chris and Greg, my name is Sean from Albany, New York. I love the podcast. I love the show on News Nation too. I have kind of a weird question. Have you ever considered doing like a

live show, like with an audience, you know, maybe get like a panel of guests, talk about the issues, invite the audience to ask questions. I think it would be kind of a cool thing. Like you always say, like disagree with decency, you know, see if you can bring people together and show there's a better way to do it than just screaming at each other over social media. Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll be watching. And thanks. Look, I love your idea, man. I do. And that's not my thing. I don't put together events. I'm not a leader or an organizer. I'm an interviewer and a researcher and a reporter and a tester. That's really, I think, my place. And I'm not really looking for more, certainly not more control. And I don't want to lead any movement or effort or anything like that. I want you guys to do that for yourselves. And I want to arm you with the ammunition of information and insight to be

pushing the right questions and pushing the right people and thinking for yourself about what you want and what you can do about it. So I love the idea. Shit, I think we should have a constitutional convention. I think we should be rethinking all these big questions. I really do. What are you laughing at? I'm laughing because I love the idea too. He says a live event. I picture, you know, you run out the Beacon Theater, you have a bunch of guests, like an NPR type thing, you know, some people there. I wasn't picturing the live event being the first constitutional convention in several hundred years. That's a very, that seems like a very different thing that is not on Ticketmaster, you know? Look, that's what we need. I mean, all these questions that go to what we want to be as a people and what we want

to prioritize and deprioritize. I mean, a lot of these are constitutional questions and we keep, you know, we're having this tension in society between the reckoning at the beginning versus the reality of now, the reckoning of the beginning versus the reality of now. And did the founding fathers believe that everything would stay the same? Of course not, to the extent that they could foresee it at all. And that's not to mess with their genius or the respect for them. It's just about the reality of how things change and how needs and wants change along with them. This is also a fundamental problem in religion is that people's wants of what they crave for their own nourishment change or have changed.

And some in religion say, well, it's too bad. We have to stay the way we've always been because that's what gets us closer to God. Is it? Is it? Is that consistent with Jesus' message, if that's your figure? I don't know.

And I really suspect that the answer is no. So I think you should have live events. I think you should do that. I don't like Greg bringing up NPR. I believe that the NPR is too often a mouthpiece for the left. And I think that there

is a profound condescension there right down to their voice cadence. I'm not talking about like their regular broadcast. I mean like, wait, wait, don't tell me. Like they have, you know,

they got the people on stage. They kind of have like an entertaining show but informative. NPR and entertaining is not something that I put to you. Wait, wait, don't tell me. That's a great program.

What are you talking about? When I lived in Chicago, that'd be like a great drive podcast. I find it, you said drive, I hear dry. But look, non degustibus desputandus est. That is a Latin expression that means there's no disputing taste. If you like it, that's great. It's very important for us to have NPR. I believe in that.

And I'm glad that it's there. It doesn't mean that I have to like it. I just have to respect its existence and that there's a need for it. And we should respect that. We need a marketplace of ideas. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, okay? Lose my number. Look how happy he is with himself.

Well, you must have, this is a person called Shelly. You must have been calling Shelly, lose their number. You must have been calling them. If they're saying lose the number, that means you've been calling them from this phone number. One, I don't know this person. Two, we have a lot of illness in our society. Um, we really do.

And I just hope there's somebody in that person's health and life who can get them some help. Um. I think you need the help. It's, they said you called them. Yeah, I know. And would you like me to tell you some of the things that have been said about you that I've heard? What, bad hair, ugly, annoying? You have good hair.

You're not ugly. Too many solid colored shirts? No, no. I think that your looks and how you appear is probably the least of your trouble. Oh, great. A little different when it's about him, right? He's a little mousy, Mr. 63. Mousy.

So, look, I'll lose your number. Now, you may want to think to yourself, does he even have my number? I don't know that you gave it to us. Well, it's on there. We put it on the bottom of the screen. So our number is certainly there, but I could find Shelly's number if you want. It's in the app. No, I need to lose it.

I'll delete it right away. So if you do find it, you should lose it. Okay. Shelly, we're deleting your number. Keep them coming. I love it, man. You guys care about the right things. You add information to the stew.

You help me do this better. And I hope that that benefit is passed on to you. I know that I am benefiting from it. So thank you very much. I'll see you here on the project. I'll also see you on News Nation, 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern every weeknight. Let's get after it. Music Music Music Music