What we know about CNN host Chris Cuomo’s ‘shocking’ conversation with Michael Cohen revealed by Tucker Carlson

Confiding to to his fellow New Yorker in the conversation that the CNN host claims was supposed to be off-the-record, Cuomo can be heard dismissing what he considers fraudulent allegations that he made women feel uncomfortable in the workplace during his time at ABC, where he worked from 2000 to 2013. While playing the tape, Carlson’s show displayed cartoon images of Cuomo and Cohen working out at the gym.

“You know, I’m always careful when I talk to media. Do you know how many f—ing phone calls I’ve gotten from people at ABC who say that reporters are calling and lying about things they’ve heard about me, to try to get stories about me when I was at ABC? Guys calling and saying, ‘I heard he was the Charlie Rose of ABC. He used to invite women to a hotel and open his bathrobe.’ Do I look like the kind of f—ing guy who’s gotta do that?” Cuomo said.

Rose, who spent decades working at CBS, Bloomberg, and PBS, saw his TV news career come to a halt in November 2017 after multiple women accused him of making unwanted sexual advances on them, after which he apologized for his behavior.

“Sure, why not?” Cohen responds.

Cuomo, who has been married to fellow journalist Cristina Greeven Cuomo since 2001 and together have three children, goes on impersonating somebody asking him about the rumors, saying, “‘I have a good source that says he forced one woman to have sex. I just want to know if you’ve ever heard anything like that?'”

“There is no woman!” Cuomo exclaimed.

“So here’s the problem: Women who do work there saying, ‘oh yeah, you know some of these men,’ naming me with other guys, ‘you know, we bumped into each other once in the elevator, and he put his hand on my shoulder, and he made me really uncomfortable,” Cuomo said, describing internal allegations against him. “I mean what the f—?! It’s a problem. And now … I’m careful with the media, always. I’ve always told you: The media is not your friend.”

Carlson said his team sent a copy of the tape and a list of questions about the recording to CNN’s head of strategic communications, Matt Dornic, and “that kid who’s got the media show on the weekends,” an apparent reference to CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter. He told his audience on Tuesday that they had not yet responded.

Cohen, however, did in a tweet, saying the only ones who he knows had access to the tape were the Justice Department and the Trump Organization. He also tagged the official presidential account, which is currently occupied by President Trump.

“I did not give this recording or authorization for its use to @FoxNews or anyone. @POTUS and cronies violated my First amendment rights and now this; all to discredit me and my book. What’s next?” he said in a post that also contained an image of his forthcoming book and the words: “Coming soon.”

Carlson updated his audience on Wednesday, saying he “heard” that Cuomo may be in “trouble” with CNN after the tape aired. “We’re not sure what that means, but we hope, and we say this with total sincerity, we hope that CNN isn’t thinking of firing Chris Cuomo over the tape we aired.”

Carlson went on to comment on the #MeToo movement.

“Not every claim of sexual harassment is true. We can tell you that firsthand,” Carlson said, likely referring to a recent sexual misconduct lawsuit that named Carlson and other Fox personalities as defendants. “We should never unquestioningly believe an allegation simply because of the biological makeup of the person who levels it.”

The Washington Examiner has reached out to CNN and ABC for comment.

Carlson first told his audience on Friday that he intended to share details of the conversation between Cohen and Cuomo the following week.

This tape is one of many that have been “floating around” for some time but have never aired publicly, Carlson said, before noting with a chortle that Cuomo, who is the brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was captured on at least one of them.

“Cohen and the governor’s brother had a pretty shocking conversation. Bottom line, Chris Cuomo is not the person he pretends to be on CNN. And there is more. This is a developing story. We’ll have all of it for you next week. Tune in,” Carlson said as video played of Cuomo lifting weights at a gym.

Carlson provided his audience an update at the end of his show on Monday, noting that the recording “raises a number of questions about [Cuomo’s] personal behavior off the air.” Stating that it is “because we believe in straightforward journalism,” Carlson said his team sent a copy of the tape and a list

of questions about the recording to Dornic and likely Stelter.

“We haven’t heard back yet. We’re going to give them tonight to respond, and we’re going to update you tomorrow. We hope that they will respond,” Carlson said before uttering his signature signoff that his show is the “sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.”

Cuomo, who was a correspondent for Fox News before joining ABC News, was pressed to talk about his conversation with Cohen in the summer of 2018 after the FBI seized materials from the longtime Trump fixer, who later that year, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a planned Trump Tower project in Moscow as well as charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations for hush money payments to two women during the 2016 campaign who claimed to have had affairs with the president. Trump has denied those relationships.

On July 24, Cuomo played on his show, Cuomo Prime Time, a recorded conversation between Trump and Cohen about buying the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story about her alleged affair with Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported a day later that federal investigators obtained 12 tapes belonging to Cohen, including a conversation with Cuomo that was nearly two hours long. The report narrowly focused on how Cohen talked about arranging a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about the affair she claims to have had with Trump in 2006. “I did it on my own,” Cohen said in regard to the payment.

Rudy Giuliani, who became Trump’s personal attorney during the Russia investigation, appeared on Cuomo’s show a couple of days later, praising the host for how he conducted himself during his chat with Cohen. The former New York City mayor said he could make the judgment because he read the transcript.

“You did exactly the right thing. In fact, Chris, thank you for doing it because you questioned him the way a lawyer would question him, and you got everything out of him,” Giuliani said. “I couldn’t have done a better job of getting him to corroborate my client’s statement than you did. And he did it three or four times.”

Cuomo said he wouldn’t talk about it, insisting he remained bound by an off-the-record agreement. “I can’t talk about it,” he said.

Giuliani argued that Cuomo was released from the off-the-record agreement because of Cohen’s actions. “He put it on the record by taping the darn thing surreptitiously, by lying to you,” Giuliani said.

Still, Cuomo refused, insisting it was a matter of journalistic integrity. “Because somebody else does the wrong thing doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same thing,” he said.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who last week announced her resignation, participated in a 32-minute interview with Cuomo the following month in which they discussed the tapes. While Cuomo pressed Conway to talk about Daniels, she pushed him to address the two-hour tape that captured his talk with Cohen.

Flipping the script between guest and host, Conway repeatedly pressured Cuomo to tell his audience what was said on the tape.

“Tons of stuff,” he said at one point. Cuomo then explained why he would not talk about the tape publicly.

“He asked me not to record it, I said, ‘I won’t,'” Cuomo said. “He said, ‘Just to be careful, let me have your phone,’ I said, ‘Here.’ He then said, ‘We’ll take our phones. I’ll put them away.’ He did. He then recorded me on a secondary device.”

Asked how he felt about it, Cuomo said Cohen’s actions were “dishonest” and “a bad thing to do.”

Cuomo claimed he has nothing to worry about on the tape but then suggested there is a reason why Conway and the Trump team would want it disclosed.

“You know what we talked about in the conversation? I’m not going to tell you, you know why? Because it was off the record, and I respect that, even though he did me wrong. That’s called integrity,” Cuomo said.

“What do you do when people aren’t watching? I’m still not going to burn him even though he did something wrong,” Cuomo added. “He can answer that for himself. I’ll tell you what, there’s nothing on it that I’m worried about. I know why you guys want to leak it but — hold on a second, this isn’t about me. You tried, you failed. He’s on that tape, on there with Michael Cohen, and he’s lying about not knowing before these payments, and you should admit it,” he added, referring to the taped conversation between Cohen and Trump.

From there, the interview turned away from the taped discussion involving Cuomo.

On his show Friday and the following Monday, Carlson gave no other details about what he plans to share about the tape or how he got it. The Fox News host also did not specify when exactly he will make the disclosure or how much he intends to reveal.

Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in federal prison in December 2018, is serving the rest of his three-year sentence on home confinement after he was briefly sent back to prison in July following his original release in May due to concerns related to the coronavirus. He plans to release a memoir next month about working for Trump, titled Disloyal, and is expected to participate in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.