Joe Piscopo reacts to Chris Cuomo 'Fredo' confrontation: 'It was a racist comment'
Joe Piscopo, Italian-American radio talk show host and comedian, speaks exclusively to Fox News Digital about why CNN anchor Chris Cuomo reacted with curses and threats in a video, that has since gone viral, where the journalist is called 'Fredo' and considers it an insult.
CNN host Chris Cuomo doesn’t appreciate being nicknamed “Fredo,” but has no problem labeling the president “Dirty Donald.”
“Cuomo Prime Time” on Friday concluded with a segment in which the on-screen graphic referred to the president as “#DirtyDonald” and the namesake host encouraged the moniker to trend on social media.
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Media Research Center analyst Ryan Foley wrote that the use of the nickname makes the CNN host “indistinguishable from a Democratic activist.” The CNN host is the younger brother of Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, and was caught on video threatening a man earlier this year who called him “Fredo.”
Political satirist Tim Young told Fox News that Cuomo’s newfound fondness of a nickname is hypocritical.
President Trump has mocked CNN’s Chris Cuomo by comparing him to Fredo from “The Godfather.”
“Cuomo is now officially playing the game that we've seen the left play since Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016, where if a joke or joke nickname I made about them, they scream that it's the end of world... but when they do it, it's perfectly alright,” Young said.
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Fredo is a reference to Fredo Corleone, the weak and facile brother in the movie “The Godfather,” who was played by John Cazale. The confrontation, which took place at a bar on New York's Shelter Island, went viral when a man taunted him with the nickname.
"I thought that was who you were,” the man said.
"No, punk-ass b----es from the right call me 'Fredo.' My name is Chris Cuomo. I'm an anchor on CNN," a heated Cuomo responded. "'Fredo' was from 'The Godfather.' He was a weak brother and they use that as an Italian slur — are any of you Italian?... It's a f---ing insult to your people. It's an insult to your f--kin' people. It's like the N-word for us. Is that a cool f---ing thing?"
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After the man sarcastically told him, "You’re a much more reasonable guy in person than you seem to be on television," Cuomo reacted, "If you want to play, we'll f---ing play."
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"If you've got something to say about what I do on television, then say it, but you don't have to call me a f---in' insult," Cuomo continued.
"Hey man, listen, I don't want any problems," the man, who appears to be holding the camera from below, told Cuomo.
"Well, you're gonna have a big f---in' problem," Cuomo shot back.
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The video ended with multiple people attempting to separate the two men. CNN stood by Cuomo. President Trump mocked the video, tweeting that he “thought Chris was Fredo also.”
“The truth hurts,” Trump tweeted. “Totally lost it!”
Young said that Cuomo “pretended to be mortally wounded by” the Fredo nickname but would surely mock Trump if the president “whined” about the “Dirty Donald” moniker.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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