Media

One Day After Mocking ‘Right-Wing’ Media For Reporting On Crime, CNN’s Cuomo Admits Homicides Are Rising – But Blames It On States Reopening

Screenshot CNN, Cuomo Prime Time

Shelby Talcott Senior White House Correspondent
Font Size:

CNN’s Chris Cuomo admitted Wednesday evening that homicides are rising, but appeared to place the blame on states reopening rather than ongoing protests calling to defund the police.

Cuomo, alongside CNN’s Don Lemon, mocked “right-wing” media just one day earlier for reporting on rising crime in major cities – although statistics show that many cities have, indeed, seen rising crime. Cuomo appeared to backtrack Wednesday, admitting that homicides are spiking but claiming it is due to reopening the economy. (RELATED: ‘Crime Is Rising!’: Lemon, Cuomo Mock ‘Right-Wing’ Media For Reporting On Crime)

“But let’s see how ‘Ms. I won’t lie to you’ [White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany] and the rest of ‘Team Trump’ feel after we drop some truth on their roof,” Cuomo said. “The increases started in June. You say, ‘hey, wasn’t that about the same time as the protests, all those calls to defund the police? That’s gotta be the reason. See, you turn on the cops and the criminals run wild.’ That’s why she wants questions about it, to say that, right?”

“But what else started in June? Well, states started lifting stay at home orders, now, didn’t they? Well, you don’t know that that’s what it was. Okay. Why, in April and May, when businesses were closed and we were forced to stay home, were homicides down?”

WATCH:

States reopening wasn’t the only possible explanation Cuomo gave Wednesday evening. He also suggested that the increase in homicide rates could be due to the time of year, as they “almost always spike in summer.”

“Why? Kids are out of school, more people are out in general and in contact with each other,” according to Cuomo. “So more chance for beefs, good and bad. Add it to a seasonal increase in drug consumption and you get more of us at our worst. But this here is unique – people are not out and about as much, at least they shouldn’t be.”

Homicides aren’t the only thing up in some major cities, as violent crime has exploded across America. In New York City, for example, murder, burglary and grand larceny auto crimes all rose in June compared to last year, CNN previously reported.

Cuomo’s push to blame states reopening also has some holes, according to multiple reports pointed out by Newsbusters.

Fox 8 reported that “homicides and gun violence increased during quarantine” in New Orleans – during a time when it was under lockdown. In Seattle, Democratic Mayor Jenny Durkan said its “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” resulted in “a staggering 525 percent spike in crime as a result of the violence that swept through,” according to the NY Post.

Cuomo continued the segment by saying that despite the increase in homicides, “overall, crime is down.” He said that domestic violence reports, overdoes and more increased during the lockdown. Cuomo then began to discuss topics such as poverty, saying, “a culture of exclusion that leads to crime and killing and tragic faces like these” as six children who were shot over July 4th weekend came up on the screen.

“They weren’t targets,” Cuomo said. “There were living in the wrong place at the wrong time, like too many generations kids before them. Violent crime rates have been falling for decades. But that stat belies the reality that black lives just don’t seem to matter as much.”