Chris Cuomo's Anger at DNC Money
The trigger for his explosive comments may have been related to physical discomfort and pain.
Did news reporter Chris Cuomo vent his anger based on alarming facts dangerous to the public, speaking for many Americans disenchanted with money and power or was there something more beyond his pointed comments?
Cuomo reported for NewsNation on the floor at the Democratic National Convention, and spoke fiercely about the money-givers unethically involved in politics. While he was talking about DNC donors, he later added that the same things he was observing at the event he was covering also happen with the Republicans.
“There is a game of money. We are strangled by the money reality in politics,” Cuomo said, talking about how large donors — organizations and individuals — are too-powerful of influencers who determine which candidates receive opportunity in politics, who keeps it and what agendas get pushed.
“Those suites start at 500 grand. You think there is a teacher group up there,” Cuomo rhetorically asked. “Those boxes (suites) are filled with the same people they (Democrats in power) say they’re going to regulate. They’re literally looking down on the faithful (on the floor of the convention)… and the same thing is true on the Republican side.”
He wasn’t done.
“They’re looking down from on high (literally and figuratively he was inferring) at the people (on the floor of the convention) who make the difference in their communities and that is the reality of politics,” Cuomo said.
That’s nothing new under the sun. Most every citizen is well aware it.
It doesn’t get sufficient media and expert attention and is not investigated and attacked as much as other election-driving variables. The machinations that money drives and the candidates it supports in political races, especially for president, is a troublesome problem that is not properly regulated.
He showed low tolerance for high-dollar donors in their suites above the DNC floor.
"They're looking down from on high at the people who make the difference in their communities,” Cuomo said of the ridiculously expensive suites above the floor of the convention and people occupying them. “And that is the reality of politics."
That is a bold claim, one that may be accurate. If there were rejections of that claim, with credible proof later that evening, the next day or days afterward, it didn’t seem like it was present or widely disseminated.
"In 2000, (powerful donors) spent $300 million on presidential campaigns,” Cuomo said. “Twenty-four years later, you know what they're expected to spend? Ten billion!"
If those numbers are factual and in proper context, it seems to reason that power brokers in this country are heavily influencing government leadership and policy (no surprise) far more effectively and frequently than the general public knows and clearly, fully understands (maybe that is a surprise).
Cuomo talked about his presentation at the DNC with businessman and podcaster Patrick Bet-David, as reported by Zachary Leeman, writing at Mediaite.
“Did somebody piss you off? Did something happen? Did somebody do something that you got upset about or was it just purely organic?” Bet-David asked Cuomo on The PBD Podcast.
Cuomo reiterated that it was the “degree” of money at the convention that bothered him but also confessed that he was suffering from sore ankles.
“I did not know they would not let me sit down,” he said. “My ankles looked like my grandmother’s. I had to stand six hours every night and people will be like, ‘so what?’ Well, I’m 54-years-old, it’s hard.”
As it goes with us as humans, we are bothered and angry about something but not feeling well physically can act as the emotional, psychological trigger to express that anger more aggressively.
That doesn’t mean that Cuomo’s points are not valid. It means that he may not have communicated what he did, as intensely as he did, as detailed and long as he did if he was not hurting.
What he expressed however was important and sometimes in life, unexpected catalysts drive positive actions as much as they do negative ones.
Cuomo continued, saying that as he looked up into some suites, he noticed that donors would recognize him and close their drapes.
“I said, you know, there’s just such an obvious bullshit aspect — and it’s always been like this at every convention I’ve been to. RNCs. Many DNCs. You have to make the money to play the game,” he said.
It led Cuomo to touch on the eleven-figures of money raised for the campaigns these days for presidential campaigns and conclude to Bet-David what he finds alarming.
“How can you believe that anybody’s going to do anything to those people? I just believe it was important just to remind. I don’t think people are stupid,” he said.
People who pay large figures expect preferential treatment and protection, Cuomo is asserting, and they will receive it.
He couldn’t speak so sharply about money and power and not come out of it pleasing those people or the Democrats at their convention. And Cuomo didn’t, saying that he received “hate” and “stink eyes” for his comments.
He additionally spoke about Democrats who have communicated that they will go after price gouging when it comes to food.
People making these types of promises are “full of shit,” Cuomo contested.
In other words, Cuomo was not impressed by what he observed, heard or experienced at the DNC or conventions in general. Did his ankle pain and frustration inspire what needed to be said or did Cuomo allow himself to act unprofessionally?
It’s up for debate.
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