Cuomo on Trump: 'I Would Have Decked Him'

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said this week that scientists were "unmuzzled" with President Trump's election loss, per Business Insider. Apparently so, too, was the governor himself. Appearing on the Howard Stern Show Monday, Cuomo opened up about an anti-Italian insult Trump directed at his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. Trump repeatedly referred to Chris Cuomo as "Fredo," the weak Corleone son in The Godfather, after a man used the same insult against the journalist in a viral video last year. Controversially, both Cuomos compared the insult to the n-word. "If I wasn't governor of New York, I would have decked him. Period," Cuomo told Stern per USA Today. "Take away that word governor for 24 hours, I would have had a field day with him."

The governor said "Fredo" referred to "the Mafia stereotype," which "has been such a stain on Italians for so long." By using it, Trump "was attacking me, he was attacking my family," he said. "He was anti-Italian." Cuomo, who worked (and sparred) with Trump as the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York hard this spring, says he brought up the insult during an April visit to the White House. "I said to him, 'You want to attack me, attack me … Why are you bringing my brother into it?'" That didn't get him anywhere. Trump is "so emotionally fragile and desperate for affirmation. Any criticism, even if it's purely factual, he goes crazy and you can't talk to him," Cuomo said. (More Andrew Cuomo stories.)