It did.

From behind a couple of… big men, Cuomo does his best Fred Sanfordesque “Hold me back!”

The encounter between CNN’s Chris Cuomo and the man happened at a Shelter Island bar — that appears to be Sunset Beach — on Sunday. The video, surreptitiously filmed by the man Cuomo was shouting at, was uploaded to Twitter by a user who said he was sent the clip.
— Mediaite, 8/12/19

It seems to be a mystery to many that “Fredo” is the Italian equivalent of the “n-word” to black people, albeit a pitiful comparison.

Cuomo’s reaction is perfectly fine for me. I’m not Italian, so I’m not bothered by the word Fredo, but unless there is another Fredo who was stolen from his homeland, enslaved, beaten, ripped from his children and forced to watch as his wife was raped, then Fredo is nowhere close to the n-word. That’s what Cuomo tried to explain during the incident. He literally argued that Fredo is a racist slur akin to calling a black person the n-word.

It ain’t. It ain’t again. And, it ain’t some more.
— The Root, 8/13/19

However, Chris Cuomo should be applauded for the clarification because we all thought Fredo was your garden variety referral to the “dumb” one in the family.

According to Cuomo, we were all wrong.

But this is yet another example of a media figure who believes HE can call people liars, demean those with whom he disagrees with, and dictate how the American people should conduct our daily lives but when called a name he considers an insult, can go off and his employer is okay with that.

Chris Cuomo defended himself when he was verbally attacked with the use of an ethnic slur in an orchestrated setup. We completely support him.
— Matt Dornic, CNN spokesperson,, 8/13/19

Not sure if that encounter would meet the media definition of a verbal attack, but we guess it all depends on who’s receiving the “attack”.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the video was a conservative prank …

Again note how the media consistently identifies the “conservative” but they never seem to get around to labeling anyone liberal. As if the liberal is in the mainstream and the conservative is fringe.

… first posted by conservative media personality Brandon Straka. Straka shared the video on his YouTube channel “That’s the Point,” saying the clip was sent in by a fan. Straka claimed that the man in the video did not know Cuomo’s real name, only that Rush Limbaugh refers to him as “Fredo.”
— NewJersey.com, 8/12/19

This from the same media that relishes every “got’cha” moment they can gleefully report on, “orchestrated” or not. And like most thinned skinned, they’re also a prime example of both hypocrisy and selective memory which almost always comes back to bite.

Cuomo was interviewed by Curtis Sliwa on his AM 970 radio show in January 2010 about whether his brother Andrew might seek the Democratic nomination for governor. Sliwa said he dubbed the Cuomo family “la Cuomo Nostra.”

“There is a group of people — politicos — who always hint they might run, but not necessarily plunge all the way, and they are members of la Cuomo.”

“Who am I, then, Fredo?” Cuomo asked in response.

“Yes, exactly,” Sliwa said.
— New York Post, 8/13/19

So, the lesson of all this is something we already know.

It’s a fascinating case study. These people can dish it out. They can talk about Donald Trump all day long. They can spread lies. They can slander and libel people left and right. They can spread false conspiracy theories and hoaxes, and they can try to pass them off as real. They can try to overturn the results of an election! They can join a silent coup. They can join in the attempted destruction of anybody who is on the right simply because they don’t agree with them. But, man, they cannot take a single little bit.
— Rush Limbaugh, 8/13/19

Exactly. Chris Cuomo and his overpaid, teleprompter-reading media colleagues can look down on and mock us, destroy our reputations, destroy our livelihoods, and even publicly slander us behind the shield of their First Amendment protection, but please… leave THEM alone.

They just can’t take it.