On Cuomo Prime Time Wednesday, Chris Cuomo railed against Fox News for not warning viewers not to take Tucker Carlson seriously. This was in response to baseless claims Carlson made a night earlier, stating that FBI operatives organized the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Cuomo pointed to a defamation lawsuit involving Carlson that Fox won last year by arguing that no reasonable person would take him seriously.
“He is getting something wrong and he probably knows it is. Here’s what should bother you. His employer said in open court that he is not to be taken seriously. Do they put that on that screen when he is putting out that BS? No,” Cuomo said, later adding. “Why aren’t they telling you, ‘Don’t take this man as truthful? Because we said in open court, he is not to be believed by reasonable people.’ They said it.”
Cuomo then pointed to Carlson’s source, a website run by Darren Beattie, a onetime speechwriter for former President Donald Trump who was fired for attending a conference at which white supremacists were present.
Carlson’s reasoning for saying the insurrection was planned by FBI operatives was also debunked by former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who explained why people are sometimes referred to as unindicted co-conspirators.
“At the time the indictment is written and signed off by the judge, there are people who need to be referred to in the indictment just to make it a coherent story so it makes sense,” McCabe said, “but who the government is not prepared to charge at that time.”
McCabe also mentioned that Trump was considered an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against his former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Following Fox News’s argument in court, the judge concluded that the general tenor of Carlson’s show should inform viewers that he is not stating actual facts, and Cuomo chided the network for not informing their audience of their own argument.
“That guy should have on his screen that he is not to be taken as serious,” Cuomo said. “That’s what they argued in open court. They should own it. They are a disgrace for not doing it.”
Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.
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