CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has officially addressed his initial tweet when right-wing troll Jacob Wohl spouted a bogus birther conspiracy theory about Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).
“I screwed up,” Cuomo said candidly on ABC’s “The View.” “I wrote the tweet while I was prepping for my radio show.”
The since-deleted tweet read: “And hopefully there will be no games where the issue keeps changing for righty accusers…and…the legit info abt Harris comes out to deal with the allegation ASAP. The longer there is no proof either way, the deeper the effect.”
“I was trying to get ahead of what I feel I contributed to as a mistake during the Obama birtherism stuff, which is we kind of let it devolve into where Obama had to prove he was a citizen,” he continued on “The View.” “And that gave a dignity to a bigoted move that was never warranted.”
“So this time, I wanted to get ahead of it but I wound up stepping right in it and mashing my foot around in it and then wiped it on my face a little bit,” Cuomo said to laughter. “And God forbid anyone on Twitter give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“The point is simple. You don’t get to disparage people this way because of their race, because you don’t like what they represent,” he concluded. “And what I’m saying is, before we go through this again, if you have an accusation, put up or shut up—Kamala Harris shouldn’t have to go through this. That was my point, I made it poorly.”
Watch here:
.@ChrisCuomo explains his tweet that went viral for commenting on a conspiracy theory questioning Kamala Harris’ citizenship eligibility for president: “You don’t get to disparage people this way because of their race, because you don’t like what they represent.” pic.twitter.com/JVQC4PQOq8
— The View (@TheView) January 24, 2019
