Chris Cuomo Jokes With Brother About COVID-19 Testing, Fails To Ask Him About Nursing Home Crisis

CNN’s Chris Cuomo interviewed his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, last night for the 10th time since the coronavirus pandemic began. At one point, The TV host pulled out a giant cotton swab and asked his older brother about a test he had previously taken.

“Is it true… this was the actual swab that was being used to fit up that double barreled shotgun that you have mounted on the front of your pretty face?” On a tweet for the show, it was called a “light a moment over the governor’s televised coronavirus test.”

“Is it true… this was the actual swab that was being used to fit up that double barreled shotgun that you have mounted on the front of your pretty face?”

.@ChrisCuomo and his brother NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo share a light a moment over the governor’s televised coronavirus test. pic.twitter.com/ETcnPkTjqV

— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) May 21, 2020

Governor Cuomo engaged in the joke, saying “(The nurse told me) that I have a little button nose.”

Although many on the left have provided cover for this encounter, Reason senior editor Robby Soave was one who had the guts to call it out.

Soave wondered what “If Don Jr had a Fox show and regularly interviewed Ivanka about how pretty she is?” He continued that “It’s the job of journalists to ask government leaders tough questions—like, Mr. Governor, why did you order nursing homes to accept patients who were sick with COVID-19?”

It’s the job of journalists to ask government leaders tough questions—like, Mr. Governor, why did you order nursing homes to accept patients who were sick with COVID-19? Obviously Chris cannot do this. Please stop it.

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 21, 2020

Soave also criticized CNN: It was a moment that should have embarrassed CNN, whose journalists frequently—and often justifiably—criticize other networks for lobbing softball questions at President Donald Trump. And yet Chris Cuomo’s employers have decided to let his bad family comedy routine play out night after night, as the brothers fake-argue about which one is mom’s favorite, who would win in a fight, and where the tomato sauce recipe went.