Chris Cuomo defends having Tucker Carlson on his show amid hysteria from leftist armchair critics: 'This man has a bigger platform than any outlet'

Chris Cuomo slammed left-wing armchair critics during his NewsNation series, Cuomo, who took offense to his interview with Tucker Carlson, saying they were 'simply demonizing someone you disagree with.' 

The former CNN host sat down with the ousted Fox News firebrand earlier this week, where he criticized Carlson for asking Russian leader Vladimir Putin 'softball questions.' 

But amid fury from woke viewers that Cuomo would even host Carlson, he defended the move as 'that man and his crazy cackle is bigger than most major outlets,' he said on his NewsNation show on Wednesday. 

'He has an audience because millions feel the same way.' 

Chris Cuomo defended his interview with Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, saying those who took offense were 'simply demonizing someone you disagree with' and an open-exchange of ideas is 'all we need to get to a better place' 

Tucker Carlson told Chris Cuomo that he 'can't even guess' who killed Alexei Navalny during a confrontational interview earlier this week, after Cuomo hit at Carlson for asking Vladimir Putin softball questions

Cuomo argued that those who were against even speaking with Carlson were shortsighted, and it would be redundant to merely ignore influential people you disagree with. 

'This is the same mistake that many in the media made with Trump,' he said. 'And when I was talking to Trump early on, I was getting the same criticism.'

While noting that interviewing Carlson could lead to 'the distribution of bad ideas', he felt those on the other side are worse, as they would 'rather silence what they don't agree with.'

'And I think that drives the division,' Cuomo continued. 

'While there is disagreement, deep disagreement, on who is to blame, what the solutions are, what really happened and who's right to do the job, for all that there are common concerns.

'And that's all we need to get to a better place.' 

Despite being the son and brother of two New York governors, Cuomo felt that he received backlash for the interview because 'the establishment hate it when we talk to each other.' 

'The ugly truth is that too many in the establishment prefer to keep us divided,' he said. 'So they don't have to do what is hard: fix the problems.' 

'It has all enabled the divide and conquer mentality subverting your interests for their own retention of power and share of audience.' 

Cuomo and Carlson clashed over Russia and January 6 during their interview, which Cuomo defended as what 'we need to get to a better place.' 

While some took offense to platforming Carlson, others praised the open-exchange of ideas between those who disagree, with journalist Maria Shriver saying that it is 'one way we as a nation can find out way back to civility.' 

'I like that these guys did this,' said the journalist, and ex-wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, on X. 'I know Chris Cuomo, I don't know Tucker Carlson, but I learned something about both men that I didn’t know before. Good job to you both.' 

The interview saw some hostile moments between the pair, particularly as they clashed over Carlson's interview tactics with Putin. 

While conceding that Carlson shouldn't have been 'getting into a shouting match' with the Russian president, Cuomo still felt the ex-Fox News host could've gone harder and asked about Navalny.

'[You] made choices,' he said. 'You didn't ask about Navalny. You said, well all killers, all leaders kill. But don't you feel that if you are gonna go and sit with someone like that you have to hold them for account for things that matter, the fact that he may have murdered somebody or a lot of people,' he said. 

Carlson responded by saying that he did hold Putin to account but claimed that 'Ukrainians say [Putin] didn't kill Navalny.'

Cuomo responded: 'Who killed him then? Guy looks good one minute, the next minute he's dead.'

'In some larger sense, the Russian government, the Ukrainian government said he died of natural causes,' Carlson argued.

'Now, what is actually going on there, I can't even guess.'

During his interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin gave a 'historical background' of the conflict with Ukraine, before defending his military's action. Cuomo subsequently slammed Carlson for asking 'softball questions' 

While conceding that Carlson shouldn't have been 'getting into a shouting match' with the Russian president, Cuomo still felt the ex-Fox News host could've gone harder and asked about Navalny

The pair also discussed Carlson's coverage of the January 6 insurrection.

'Your approach and the approach of other people, hey this was just, you know, these guys were in the wrong place, the wrong way, but that's all it was. I don't agree with that. I think it was a riot,' Cuomo said.

'And I think they were way over the line, and I think they were motivated to go over the line, in part by the President of the United States.'

Carlson replied: 'Parts of it obviously were a riot but let me ask you a couple questions, one is, why can't we know how many federal agents were in the crowd and what they were doing there?'

'I am fine with knowing. I love transparency. It is the key to understanding,' Cuomo responded.

Cuomo then lobbied that he 'cherry-picked' the footage he played from that day to make those charged with crimes in connection with the Capitol insurrection appear sympathetic.

'I aired what they sent me,' Carlson replied, to which Cuomo again claimed he 'cherry-picked' it.