Fired CNN Star Chris Cuomo Denounced as ‘D–bag’ and ‘Fredo’ by Megyn Kelly for Criticizing Her Commentary on Guthrie Case

A conservative journalist, Megyn Kelly, is firing back at Chris Cuomo, the former CNN star, after he criticized her for raising questions about whether members of the Guthrie family were involved in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie. Earlier this month, Ms. Kelly backed reporting from the true crime journalist and TV host, Ashleigh Banfield, about the search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “TODAY” co-host Savannah Guthrie. Ms. Banfield reported Annie Guthrie’s husband, Tomasso Cioni, “may be the prime suspect.” The Pima County sheriff, Chris Nanos, called that claim “reckless.” On Monday, he told a local TV station, WLBT, “Not one single person in the family is a suspect,” though he doesn’t appear to be coordinating with the FBI, which may have their own suspects.Ms. Banfield has stood by her reporting. And Ms. Kelly said she believes Ms. Banfield was “on to something.”Amid law enforcement’s pushback on the suggestion that members of the Guthrie family were involved in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, Mr. Cuomo – who now hosts a show on the little-viewed cable news channel, NewsNation – slammed “sloppy influencers” and “would-be sleuths” who “get paid for clicks and ragebait.”Ms. Kelly fired back at “the d–bag Chris Cuomo,” using a foul and obscene term for a repulsive, disreputable person.“Here’s Fredo Cuomo on his little-known show on NewsNation, which has fewer viewers than I have fingers,” she said before playing a clip of Mr. Cuomo criticizing her. “So let me tell you what Fredo is really upset about. He has Fredo no ‘rate-o.’ That’s his real problem. Nobody watches his show on NewsNation, and I mean nobody, and nobody watches his failed podcast either.”She added, “Nobody watched his serious radio show, nobody watched him on CNN, and therefore he gets upset at anybody who does well, like our show, which is always one of the top three conservative podcasts in the nation. It’s currently number one on Apple. Fredo doesn’t like that, okay? Because as I say, ‘Fredo no rate-o’, so he gets upset and he gets jealous.”Mr. Cuomo is the younger brother of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who for many years was the most powerful politician in New York. During President Trump’s first term, when Mr. Cuomo was loudly fulminating against the president on his primetime CNN show, his detractors began to mock him as “Fredo,” a derisive reference to Fredo Corleone, the failed, weak brother in the fictional Mafia family in “The Godfather.” Mr. Trump has also referred to Mr. Cuomo as “Fredo.”Mr. Cuomo has long chafed at the nickname, saying it’s racist to Italian Americans. In 2019, on New York’s exclusive Shelter Island, he got into a violence-tinged shouting match with a patron at the trendy Sunset Beach hotel who taunted him as “Fredo.” In the confrontation, caught on video, Mr. Cuomo threatened to throw the patron down the stairs.In December of 2021, Mr. Cuomo was fired from CNN when he was discovered to have been strategizing with his brother, who was being accused of sexual assault. The former governor has denied wrongdoing.He later resurfaced at NewsNation, where the audience size for his show is estimated to range from 160,000 to 250,000 in total viewers, and about 15,000 to 24,000 viewers under age 55. That’s a 90 percent decrease in audience from that of his CNN show.His frustrations with the “Fredo” nickname continue. Ms. Kelly claimed that Mr. Cuomo called her lawyer and “begged the lawyer to get me to stop mentioning him.”“He didn’t want me to attack him because it hurt his little feelings, so now Fredo sees an opportunity to attack yours truly because of course we’re doing well with this story too, as we do when we do other news which Fredo can’t relate to,” she said.She also took a jab at Andrew Cuomo, and his “many problems in grabbing women.” Ms. Kelly added that Chris Cuomo was “accused of having a ‘Me Too’ problem.” The former CNN personality, who was the subject of multiple sex harassment allegations, has denied wrongdoing.Mr. Cuomo responded on X, writing, “Get over yourself, little hater. Odd language choice for a mom with young kids. Classy.”Ms. Kelly shot back, writing that his “focus on me is getting creepy.”

Fired CNN Star Chris Cuomo Denounced as ‘D–bag’ and ‘Fredo’ by Megyn Kelly for Criticizing Her Commentary on Guthrie Case

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