Chris Cuomo dismisses sexual misconduct allegations to Michael Cohen on tape revealed by Tucker Carlson

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

“Sure, why not?” Cohen responds.

Cuomo 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.

“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.”

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

On Wednesday, Carlson updated his audience, saying he learned that Cuomo may be in “trouble” with CNN, his current employer, 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. Not every claim of sexual harassment is true. We can tell you that firsthand,” Carlson said.

Cuomo worked at ABC from 2000 to 2013, when he joined CNN. During his time at ABC, he was a co-anchor on Good Morning America and co-hosted 20/20. He has been married to journalist Cristina Greeven Cuomo since 2001, and together, they have three children.

Cohen reacted to the clip shared by Carlson on Twitter, 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 told his audience last week that he intended to share details of a conversation on his show. The 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.

On Monday, Carlson provided his audience an update at the end of his show, 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 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.

Carlson said on Tuesday that neither of them responded.

In July 2018, 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.

Trump has denied both those relationships.

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 recorded on tape. 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 the contents of the tape during interviews with both Giuliani and former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, insisting he remained bound by an off-the-record agreement. 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.

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.