Chris Cuomo in May, 2018 in New York City.
Mike Coppola | Getty Images
Chris Cuomo said Monday that he is ending his SiriusXM radio show two days after being fired by CNN as a prime-time host over what an attorney says are claims he committed sexual misconduct against a woman.
Cuomo announced the departure from SiriusXM in a tweet.
“The way my time ended at CNN was hard,” Cuomo wrote. “While I have thick skin, I also have a family, for whom the past week has been extraordinarily difficult. So, right now, I have to take a step back and focus on what comes next.”
“That means I will no longer be doing my SiriusXM radio show.”
“I am extremely grateful for the support I have received from SiriusXM throughout my time there. I also want to express my sincere appreciation for my loyal listeners,” Cuomo said. I will miss our conversations a great deal – but I look forward to being back in touch with you all in the future.”
A SiriusXM spokesperson said, “Following Chris Cuomo’s statement that he is leaving his SiriusXM show, Let’s Get After It will no longer air. We thank Chris for his work at SiriusXM.”
Cuomo was suspended by CNN last Tuesday after documents released by New York Attorney General Letitia James revealed that he was more deeply involved than previously known in efforts to control damage to his brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after Andrew was accused of sexual harassment.
Andrew Cuomo resigned as New York governor in August after a damning investigation commissioned by James found he had harassed nearly a dozen women, a number of whom worked in his administration. Andrew Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.
In an interview for the investigation in July, Chris Cuomo told lawyers that he neither tried to find any information to disparage accusers of his brother nor did he “even know of any opposition research being done” by the governor’s staff.
But other documents released by James show that Chris Cuomo forwarded to his brother’s advisors a tweet that referenced a complaint from a college that involved Charlotte Bennett, an aide to Andrew Cuomo who had accused him of harassment.
And in March, days after The New York Times reported that Andrew Cuomo tried to kiss a woman in an unwanted advance at a wedding, Chris Cuomo texted top gubernatorial aide Melissa DeRosa with the message: “I have a lead on the wedding girl.”
On Tuesday, Bennett in a tweet called on CNN to fire Chris Cuomo because of “how far [he] was willing to go to discredit, silence and smear women, like me.”
Bennett noted that the documents showed that, “In addition to scouring the internet for personal information about me, he reached out to his professional network with the hope of intercepting additional allegations against his brother.”
A CNN spokeswoman on Tuesday, in announcing the suspension, said the documents “shed new light on Chris Cuomo’s involvement in his brother’s defense” and “raise serious questions” for the network, which had not known about the extent of his role.
Days later, on Saturday, CNN fired Chris Cuomo, saying “new information” had come to light after it hired a law firm to conduct a review of the situation.
On Sunday, the attorney Debra Katz said she had a client who has accused Chris Cuomo of “serious sexual misconduct,” and that the woman’s claims were reported to CNN last Wednesday.
“By Friday, I was in discussions with CNN about providing documentary evidence of my client’s allegations and making my client available for an interview with CNN’s outside counsel,” Katz said in a statement Sunday. “Last night, CNN acted promptly on my client’s complaint and fired Mr. Cuomo.”
Katz also represents Bennett, the former Andrew Cuomo aide.
The lawyer on Sunday said that her other client, who has accused Chris Cuomo of misconduct, was motivated to notify CNN after seeing him earlier this year claim on air to care “very deeply” about the issue of sexual harassment, and after the AG’s documents demonstrated “that Chris Cuomo played an active role in attempting to smear women whom the Attorney General concluded had made serious allegations of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct against the Governor.”
“Hearing the hypocrisy of Chris Cuomo’s on-air words and disgusted by his efforts to try to discredit these women, my client retained counsel to report his serious sexual misconduct against her to CNN,” Katz said.
Chris Cuomo’s spokesman Steve Goldberg said Sunday, “These apparently anonymous allegations are not true.”
“To the extent that they were sent to CNN to negate what Chris Cuomo told his audience, he fully stands by his on-air statements about his connection to these issues, both professionally and in a profoundly personal way,” Goldberg said.
“If the goal in making these false and unvetted accusations was to see Mr. Cuomo punished by CNN, that may explain his unwarranted termination.”
