About

Chris Cuomo "Fredo", associated with the hashtags #FredoCuomo and #FakeNewsFredo, is a pejorative nickname given to CNN news anchor Chris Cuomo referencing the character Fredo Corleone from The Godfather film series. In mid-August 2019, a viral video circulated online in which Cuomo accuses a man of bigotry against Italian Americans for referring to him as "Fredo", before threatening the man with violence.

Origin

On May 19th, 2017, radio show host Rush Limbaugh referred to Cuomo as the "Fredo of the Cuomo family."^[1] On July 6th, 2017, Limbaugh referred to Cuomo as "Fredo Cuomo" in the context of the #CNNBlackmail controversy (shown below).

On August 12th, 2019, a video began circulating online in which Cuomo engages in a heated altercation with another man. In the video, Cuomo confronts a man for referring to him as "Fredo," claiming the name was being used in a bigoted context to refer to him as the "weak brother" Fredo Corleone from The Godfather, and that the name was "like the n-word for us" (shown below).

Spread

That evening, CNN Vice President of Communications Matt Dornic tweeted that Cuomo had "defended himself when he was verbally attacked with the use of an ethnic slur," followed by "we completely support him" (shown below).

Meanwhile, Twitter user @Solmemes1 posted an edited clip of Fredo Corleone with Cuomo's head swapped in (shown below). That evening, the video was featured in a post titled "Chris Cuomo Gets Triggered When Called Fredo, Threatens Citizen" on Ebaum's World.^[2] Meanwhile, a Twitter Events^[3] page about the incident was created.

On August 13th, Donald Trump retweeted the video along with the message "I thought Chris was Fredo also. The truth hurts. Totally lost it!" (shown below).

Search Interest

External References