Anderson Cooper Reacts to Chris Cuomo’s CNN Firing: “Journalists Have Strict Ethics”

Anderson Cooper says that he feels “terrible” for Chris Cuomo and his family following the former CNN anchor’s firing earlier this month, but that journalism is “a business with very big responsibilities, and there are repercussions.”

The Anderson Cooper 360 host addressed his former colleague being let go from the news network while appearing on The Late Show Thursday night. During the sit-down, host Stephen Colbert acknowledged that CNN has been “the story in many ways” over the last couple of weeks, before more directly addressing Cuomo’s termination on Dec. 4 following a third-party investigation commissioned by CNN into his conduct regarding sexual assault allegations made against his older brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

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When asked whether Cooper felt like terminating Cuomo was the “right thing to do,” the anchor shared that while he feels for Chris and his family, journalism has ethics and standards that come with “repercussions” when not adhered to.

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to somebody who’s a colleague and somebody who is a friend of mine, and I feel terrible for him and for his family,” Cooper stated. “That being said, look, journalists have strict ethics and strict rules that we are to abide by, and if you don’t abide by them, there are repercussions. And I wish Chris the best, and I’m sorry for how all of this played out, and I hate this for his family. But this is — it’s a business with very big responsibilities, and there are repercussions.”

Cooper denied he had been notified about Cuomo’s firing ahead of CNN’s announcement on Dec. 4 and asserted that he had no knowledge the news organization held any meeting notifying the staff.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Cooper said when asked by Colbert if employees were made aware in a staff meeting, before quickly following up, “No, no. Of course not. They would have a staff meeting and say like, ‘Oh we’re going to do this thing, but don’t tell anybody’?”

When asked whether anyone was surprised by Cuomo’s firing following a year of public discussion over the anchor’s potential conflicts of interest with regards to covering his brother, Cooper responded that people were certainly surprised “when it happened.”

“I don’t know about surprise overall but I mean, it didn’t happen, and then it did happen very quickly,” Cooper said. “I think people were surprised the day it actually happened, when it happened.”

Later in their discussion, Colbert asked Cooper whether had spoken to any of his other colleagues at CNN, including fellow anchor Don Lemon — who both acknowledged is close to Cuomo. Cooper said that while he hadn’t talked to Lemon since Cuomo’s firing, the first person who reached out was Andy Cohen.

“You know, the first call after I got the news was from Andy Cohen, who was like, ‘Do you think I could get that show?’ I was like, ‘Andy, you’ve got enough real estate in television,'” Cooper said, to laughs. “Andy believes he is fully qualified to host a presidential debate because he hosts the Housewives reunion.”

Prior to his termination, Cuomo was suspended by CNN on Nov. 30 after the New York Attorney General’s office released transcripts and other documents that shed new light on his involvement with his brother’s response to several sexual harassment allegations, according to a statement CNN provided to THR. During that time, a review was conducted by an outside law firm as part of a “further evaluation of new information that came to light” about Cuomo through the AG’s investigation.

At the time CNN announced Cuomo had been terminated “effective immediately,” the network also revealed that “additional information has come to light” but offered no other details. That same Saturday, The New York Times reported that during the review, an allegation of sexual misconduct had been made against the younger Cuomo by a former junior colleague at another network, according to lawyer Debra S. Katz, who informed CNN about the claim from her client.