NewsNation host Chris Cuomo made a grudging on-air apology to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after the pair were involved in an online spat over a deepfake video.
On Wednesday, Cuomo was duped by a fake video which suggested the New York congresswoman was calling out the divisive Sydney Sweeney jeans ad as “blatant Nazi propaganda” during a speech on the floor of Congress.
Phrases like “watching that sultry little temptress squeeze into a Canadian tuxedo” and “bouncy little funbags,” as well as the word “f---” meant it was quickly identified as AI-generated by online viewers.
But not by Cuomo, who posted on his X account: “Nothing about Hamas or people burning jews cars...but Sweeney jeans ad? Deserved time on floor of congress? What happened to this party? Fight for small business...not for small culture wars.”
He has since deleted the X post, which had the AI video embedded with it, but not before Ocasio-Cortez replied, “This is a deepfake dude. Please use your critical thinking skills. At this point you’re just reposting Facebook memes and calling it journalism.”
Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and last month received death threats after she voted against an amendment that would have cut funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.
As the back-and-forth continued on X, Cuomo doubled down despite falling for the fake video. As well as prodding AOC to make a comment on Hamas, he said, “You are correct... that was a deepfake (but it really does sound like you). Thank you for correcting.”
AOC clapped back, “I’m going to assume you were trying to reply to me and burped this tweet into the ether instead. You seem to struggle with knowing how to write an apology. Do you need help? Maybe you should call someone.”
The online tit-for-tat continued when Cuomo posted on X, “Burped? You can do better... you are a new yorker! I am sorry I didn’t listen to the whole clip...obviously wrong. I do struggle...to understand why you won’t tell hamas to surrender...you have ducked it repeatedly ... do you apologize for that? Far more worthy of reply - and offensive - than an errant tweet, no?”
Talking on NewsNation on Wednesday night, Cuomo revisited the exchange as he took his apology to TV.
“You listening? I was wrong,” Cuomo said. “I was tweeting today and saw a clip of AOC saying that Sydney Sweeney ad was racist. And so I replied to it, and I said, ‘Why do you care about this and ignore what matters most? Why in all the times that you’ve called on Israel to stop why have you never told Hamas to stop? Told Hamas to surrender? Why would you ignore the St. Louis attack on that Jewish guy who had his car bombed?’”
He continued: “AOC tweeted back and said, ‘Dude, that’s a deepfake, that Sydney Sweeney ad. You suck,’ in so many words. And she was right. They got me. AI. It was really good, and it did seem like something she would say, but it wasn’t her. So I thanked AOC for correcting me.“
But he added: “Why did AOC—the most popular Democrat in the country, reportedly—ignore what I asked about calling on Hamas to surrender to end the war they started? She also ignored my question about saying nothing about the American IDF soldier who returned home only to have his car fire-bombed in America by antisemites. Why? Why wouldn’t you say anything about that?”
The Daily Beast has contacted Ocasio-Cortez’s office for comment.
Cuomo’s comments came after AOC posted on X earlier on Wednesday that his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “was backed by Trump’s orbit. That’s why he lost the [NYC mayoral] primary.”
She then called on Democrat leaders to unite behind Zohran Mamdani, the progressive who beat longtime frontrunner Cuomo in the Democratic primary, saying: “If they don’t now, how can they call for party unity later? We must lead by example. Let’s win together.”
