Former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has explained why he attacked Chris Cuomo on his Fox News show when Cuomo was at CNN.
“Because I’m a dick, probably. Because it was easy. Because I don’t like CNN and I really mean that,” Carlson told Cuomo in a lengthy interview that Carlson shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
Carlson, who became known for peddling racist, misogynistic and white nationalist talking points on his prime-time Fox show, in 2021 dubbed Cuomo “the single dumbest person ever to perform on cable news.”
It was one of many derogatory comments he made about Cuomo.
Carlson, who has previously confessed to lying on the air, told Cuomo he didn’t know why he targeted him so much.
“How can you not know? It was so intentional. It was so frequent,” said Cuomo.
Carlson suggested videos he was sent on Instagram of Cuomo lifting weights had partly inspired his rhetoric, as did Cuomo’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic when he repeatedly appeared on the air with his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
“I was pissed about the COVID thing, that is totally true. I didn’t buy any of this from day one, that was totally real,” said Carlson. “But that’s not … what I did was not really a pure refutation of your positions on COVID. It was me taking the cheap shots, which I’m not always above, and, but you should be. You should be above that.
“Did it feel good when you would come after me like that?” asked Cuomo.
“Felt a little dirty,” admitted Carlson.
“Dirty, good?” asked Cuomo. “Because you enjoyed it.”
“I don’t want to use any kind of sexual metaphor, but there is one for this,” Carlson replied. “It’s like something you shouldn’t be doing, but there’s kind of the animal thrill of doing something wrong.”
“You loved it. You loved it,” said Cuomo. “My in-laws watch you. Do you know how hard it is to deal with having your in-laws enjoy a joke that makes you wanna do, you know, bad things that are gonna cost you civil litigation money?”
Carlson said he had “weaknesses.”
“I don’t have weakness for women, I gave up drinking many years ago, but I’m still beset by weaknesses of the flesh and one of them is mockery. I just can’t help it,” he added.
Carlson said his wife was an “unusually good person” who had told him she didn’t like it when he is mean. She would say, “That’s not who you are,” he said. “It’s kind of who I am, that’s the problem.”
Cuomo was fired from CNN in December 2021 amid an investigation into how he advised his brother, the now-former governor, on how to respond to allegations of sexual harassment. He now works at NewsNation.
Carlson, meanwhile, was ousted from Fox News in April 2023 and is now releasing videos on X via his Tucker Carlson Network venture.
Carlson last month drew criticism for his fawning interview with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Cuomo has similarly drawn criticism for being interviewed by Carlson.
