Meghan McCain laid into CNN during Wednesday’s broadcast of “The View,” criticizing the network over anchor Chris Cuomo’s coverage of his brother, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
McCain first addressed the news that broke Tuesday when Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the conclusion of the independent investigation into the governor. James said that it was clear Cuomo had “sexually harassed multiple women” and had violated both state and federal laws. (RELATED: ‘Wolf, It’s Disgusting’: De Blasio Torches Cuomo, Lists Off All The Scandals He’s Been Dealing With)
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Cohost Whoopi Goldberg began by asking McCain what she made of the situation and whether she was surprised by how quickly James had acted.
“I think you have to be a sociopath or a lunatic or just you know completely blind to reality in order not to take this as truth at this point,” McCain said, noting that James was very prepared and professional and had made sure that the investigation was thorough and above board.
McCain went on to say that what had surprised her was Cuomo’s defiance at his press conference, denying any wrongdoing despite the many accusations against him.
“Some of the accusations, it goes way beyond just hugging and saying hi. It was, like, sticking a hand up a woman’s dress in her front, touching breasts, touching the back of her neck … It’s obviously inappropriate and disgusting and it’s obviously sexual harassment,” McCain added.
“I think there’s a lot of issues with — with Andrew Cuomo, and the way he’s been covered,” McCain continued, arguing that the coverage had been especially egregious during the early days and weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. “If you remember there was this whole like Cuomo-sexual phenomenon in the media and with celebrities.”
McCain also pointed out that Cuomo was still under fire for his March 25, 2020, order that directed nursing homes and rehab facilities to accept patients regardless of their COVID-19 status, arguing that he should be held accountable on that count as well.
“These older people didn’t matter. They could die in a really controversial and, you know, as far as I’m concerned, it was murder on the part — and the blood is on the part of Governor Cuomo’s hands, and we didn’t care,” McCain continued. “It’s not that sexual harassment isn’t disgusting and egregious and horrible, but it says something about our society does not care about old people. So, I’m sad those 15,000 people will not get their day in court.”
McCain then pivoted to address CNN and the governor’s brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
“Not having to talk about the biggest scandal in the country when it has to do with your brother and you’re hosting CNN, that’s nepotism. The Cuomo family and CNN are the worst kind of nepotism that the media has an example of. If it were my brother, if my brother were somehow the governor and he had been accused of this, damn straight I would be talking about it on ‘The View’ this morning, and it makes all of them cowards,” McCain said.
“I hope Gov. Cuomo is either forced out of office or resigns and I hope his brother Chris Cuomo has any kind of retribution whatsoever for his show because there was a point in time when they were doing comedy sketches with giant Q-tips on air during the height — here, we have a picture, and this was all fine and good,” McCain concluded. “When it’s fine, it’s okay to air it. That’s journalism? It’s journalism now that he’s bad and he’s been accused of all this, and the investigation came out, it’s all disgusting. We wonder why people hate the media and hate journalism.”