After weeks in coronavirus quarantine, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo made his dramatic “official reentry from the basement” on Monday. Footage of the reality-TV-worthy moment, in which Cuomo ventures upstairs, mentions he worked out recently, and greets his family, aired on his show Monday night.
“Here it is. The official reentry from the basement. Cleared by the CDC,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. The video also aired on his show, whose social-media team called it “the very moment @ChrisCuomo emerged from his basement, where he’s been riding out coronavirus for the last several weeks.”
Cuomo told his CNN colleague Dr. Sanjay Gupta that there are two reasons his wife and kids gave him a very quiet welcome. Neither was the rather obvious fact that he has already been out of the basement, by his own admission.
Cuomo told a story of leaving home just a week ago on his SiriusXM radio show. In the segment, which included Cuomo complaining about his job at CNN, he said he was confronted by a “jackass, loser, fat-tire biker” while outside on Easter. The New York Post later reported that Cuomo was visiting undeveloped property he owns in East Hampton when the man, who was riding by on his bike, called out the anchor:
“I said to him, ‘Your brother is the coronavirus czar, and you’re not even following his rules — unnecessary travel,’” the man, identified only as David, told the Post.
Cuomo’s response?
“Who the hell are you?! I can do what I want!”
Cuomo revealed his positive test for COVID-19 on March 31 and has continued to shoot his show from his Southampton basement. He’s also made several banter-heavy appearances via webcam at press conferences with his brother, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who emphasized over the weekend the importance of sticking to the facts when it comes to the coronavirus.
