CNN’s Chris Cuomo deserves credit for going where no male broadcaster has ever gone. He replied to a Twitter follower who raised the issue of a 12-year-old girl seeing a grown man’s penis in a women’s restroom.
But…he probably shouldn’t have gone there.
Not if he doesn’t want to devote his entire day to explaining what the hell he meant by saying the following:
Hello and welcome to bathroom hell. The conversation with Cuomo arose after President Trump reversed then-President Obama‘s federal dictum concerning transgender protections and bathrooms. Trump’s reversal pushes the decision back to the states.
Cuomo’s tweet pinged at 7:44 a.m. It’s nearly 5 p.m. and the fireball of a conversation between him and his online attackers is still raging.
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Media analyst Mark Dice went to town with Cuomo’s words and called him SICK.
“CNN host @ChrisCuomo says girls are ‘intolerant’ for not wanting to see men’s penises in girl’s locker rooms,” he wrote on Twitter. And then: “CORRECTION @ChrisCuomo said 12-YEAR-OLD girls are ‘THE PROBLEM’ for not wanting people with penises in girls locker rooms. YOU SICK MAN!!!”
Except maybe that isn’t quite what Cuomo meant.
In my mind, a possible translation is this: The CNN host of “New Day” thinks the 12-year-old girl’s father should teach her tolerance when using the restroom. In other words: If she sees a penis, she shouldn’t worry about it or pay attention to it.
A follower remarked, “12 yr old girls objecting to seeing penis is intolerance? You’ve lost the damn plot!!”
Cuomo replied, “How do you envision this happening? A girl’s room with no stalls or some person just walking around bathroom naked?”
Cuomo fired back several times at Dice. In one remark, he seethed, “That’s a lie and you are wasting time. I was clearly saying this isn’t about the girls it is about parents judgments now prove the risk.”
This is when the discussion took a sharp turn into Crazyland.
Dave Herculeon (not anyone you should know) said: “So because of liberal logic, parents need to show their little girls an adult male penis at so LGBT adult feels comfortable?”
Cuomo: “Are you thinking?”
Herculeon: “All the time Chris. People are allowed to think different on this. Don’t forget, this wasn’t an issue for MSM until Obama. Why?”
At this point, Brandon Darby, Breitbart News‘s Texas Bureau Chief, weighed in.
“In other news, @ChrisCuomo seems to be a pervert or otherwise lack basic decency,” he wrote on Twitter.
At 4 p.m., Cuomo was still explaining himself: “The context is clear to me,” he tweeted.”The parent is saying if his daughter is offended and I am saying that he is the issue not her.”
More Cuomo-isms from Thursday:
- “No one is saying you must embrace LGBTQ. you have every right to say you disapprove but equal protection is not only about what you like.”
- “Don’t use caps and insults. Use facts.”
- “EVERYONE READ THE TWEET BEFORE AND MINE AFTER. don’t reward bs twisting to avoid real debate. Insights not insults.”
- “My point was dead clear. This isn’t about a scared girl. It is about an overprotective parent who is afraid without basis. Don’t twist it.”
Moral of the story: When you have to resort to all caps and use words like “dead clear” something has gone terribly wrong.
The Mirror‘s take: Cuomo isn’t saying a 12-year-old girl should be to blame for seeing a penis in a women’s restroom and getting afraid. He’s suggesting that her father should teach her that it’s okay if she sees one in a public facility and not get afraid. He’s firmly on the side of the LGBTQ community. Except now his detractors think he’s a pervert. My prediction is that this online discussion will not cease anytime soon.
