Chris Cuomo, the former CNN anchor turned NewsNation host, found himself in hot water Wednesday after falling for an easily debunked deepfake video targeting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—and then managed to make things worse with a half-hearted, off-target apology that quickly devolved into a political attack.
The fabricated video in question—cartoonish in both content and tone—purported to show Ocasio-Cortez delivering a surreal tirade on the House floor, lambasting an American Eagle jeans ad featuring actor Sydney Sweeney. In the ad, Sweeney jokingly attributes personality traits and hair color to her “genes,” before adding, “My jeans are blue.” Online right-wing critics claimed the ad was a Trojan horse for white supremacy; Cuomo, somehow, went a step further—claiming AOC had turned her congressional platform into a rant about masturbation, “slave daddy oppressors,” and Sweeney’s anatomy.
“Nothing about Hamas or people burning Jews’ cars… but Sweeney jeans ad? Deserved time on floor of Congress? What happened to this party?” Cuomo posted on X (formerly Twitter), adding: “Fight for small business… not for small culture wars.” The post was later deleted—but not before screenshots began circulating widely.
Ocasio-Cortez wasted no time dismantling the disinformation and torching Cuomo in the process. “This is a deepfake, dude,” she wrote bluntly in response. “Please use your critical thinking skills. At this point you’re just reposting Facebook memes and calling it journalism.”
Cornered by the facts, Cuomo admitted in a follow-up post that the video was, indeed, fake—but couldn’t resist minimizing his mistake. “You are correct,” he acknowledged, before pivoting to a baffling deflection: “It really does sound like you. Why haven’t you condemned Hamas or the antisemitic arson in Missouri?”
Ocasio-Cortez replied with signature bite: “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.”
That parting line—“Maybe you should call someone”—was widely interpreted as a jab at his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was forced to resign in 2021 amid a slew of sexual harassment allegations and a notoriously mealy-mouthed apology tour.
Chris Cuomo didn’t let it go. He fired back later that evening: “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?”
If viewers were expecting the NewsNation host to show more humility on air, they were disappointed. During his Wednesday night broadcast, Cuomo offered a grudging on-camera apology, admitting he was wrong—but then doubled down, insisting the clip still “sounded like something AOC would say.” Rather than reflecting on the danger of misinformation, Cuomo used the moment to insinuate that Ocasio-Cortez secretly sympathizes with Hamas.
All this came just hours after Ocasio-Cortez fired another shot, suggesting Cuomo’s political meltdown might be part of a larger pattern. She reminded followers that Andrew Cuomo, once seen as a potential savior of the Democratic Party, ultimately flamed out with the backing of Donald Trump’s political allies—and lost the New York City mayoral primary to progressive candidate Zohran Mamdani.
The incident left many observers stunned—not just by how quickly Cuomo fell for an obvious hoax, but by how stubbornly he clung to the narrative even after it was exposed. As one media critic quipped: “Cuomo didn’t just take the bait—he swallowed the hook, line, and culture war sinker.”