CNN anchor Chris Cuomo staged a public emergence from quarantine in his home Monday, despite the fact that he had been caught leaving quarantine before.
"We had a huge day today in Casa Cuomo," he said during Cuomo Prime Time.
"Here it is, the official reentry from the basement, cleared by CDC," Cuomo said. "A little sweaty, just worked out. It happens. This is what I’ve been dreaming of literally for weeks."
Cuomo had left his basement prior to his "reentry" video, however. On April 12, he visited his property that is under development in East Hampton. A local cyclist named David, 65, confronted Cuomo about social distancing, as his brother, New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D.), had been providing daily coronavirus briefings on the importance of social distancing and quarantining patients.
The Tuesday following the incident, David told the New York Post about his encounter. He was riding in East Hampton when he noticed Cuomo with his wife, another woman, and three children at the property.
David said when Cuomo’s wife approached him, he asked her why her husband wasn’t practicing social distancing, at which point the television host berated him.
"He said, ‘Who the hell are you? I can do what I want,'" David recounted. "He just ranted, screaming, ‘I’ll find out who you are!'"
"He said, ‘This is not the end of this. You’ll deal with this later. We will meet again.’ If that’s not a threat, I don’t know what is," David told the Post.
David reported the incident to the police but did not press charges.
The day after the incident, Cuomo called David names during an appearance on SiriusXM radio and explained that he gets upset when confronted on the street.
"I don’t want some jackass, loser, fat-tire biker being able to pull over and get in my space and talk bulls—t to me, I don’t want to hear it," Cuomo said. "I want to be able to tell you to go to hell, to shut your mouth."
The verbal spat harks back to Cuomo's outburst at a group of strangers last August after one of them called him "Fredo," a reference to The Godfather films.
"No, punk-ass b—es from the right call me ‘Fredo.' My name is Chris Cuomo. I'm an anchor on CNN," Cuomo said. "Are any of you Italian? … It's a f—ing insult to your people. It's an insult to your f—in' people. It's like the N-word for us. Is that a cool f—ing thing?"
In late March Cuomo announced he contracted the coronavirus, but he continued with his show despite claiming to have a fever of "103 plus." He claimed he hallucinated and saw his late father, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, but he said his greatest worry was spreading the virus to his family. On April 15, he announced that his wife, Cristina, was also diagnosed with coronavirus.