So according to Chris Cuomo, calling him Fredo is a slur against Italian Americans. Yet, if you look it up on the Internet, Fredo isn’t considered a slur, but rather a joke about being the “weaker, less intelligent brother” brother from the move The Godfather. Being called Fredo is so harmless in fact, Chris Cuomo himself referred to himself as Fredo during a 2010 radio interview when his much smarter brother first ran for governor of New York. Yesterday, Cuomo was seen in a video threatening a physical assault against a Trump supporter for using that nickname. This is CNN.
| Chris Cuomo so offended by Fredo, he called himself Fredo in radio interview in 2010 |
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CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who was captured on a viral video getting into a profanity-laced exchange with a person who called him “Fredo,” once referred to himself as the hapless “The Godfather” character in a radio interview.
Cuomo was interviewed by Curtis Sliwa on his AM 970 radio show in January 2010 about whether his brother Andrew might seek the Democratic nomination for governor.
Sliwa said he dubbed the Cuomo family “la Cuomo Nostra.”“There is a group of people — politicos — who always hint they might run, but not necessarily plunge all the way, and they are members of la Cuomo.”
“Who am I, then, Fredo?” Cuomo asked in response.
“Yes, exactly,” Sliwa said. “So you better be careful that your brother Andrew doesn’t kiss you on both cheeks and then all of a sudden they take you out on the middle of the lake and where’s Chris?”
There are plenty of Italian-American slurs that could be used against Chris Cuomo and the Cuomo family, but Fredo isn’t one of them. Of course CNN has done nothing to Cuomo for physically threatening a Trump supporter.
Frankly, it could be argued that calling Chris Cuomo “Fredo” is an insult. It’s an insult to the actor who played Fredo in The Godfather John Cazale and the character itself.