Chris Cuomo heads on week-long Hamptons break as brother faces calls for resignation

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo takes Hamptons break as committee decides whether to impeach his brother

Chris Cuomo has headed to the Hamptons for a week-long vacation as controversy swirls around his brother, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is facing calls for his resignation in the wake of a report that found he sexually harassed multiple women.

The CNN anchor turns 51 on Monday and began a pre-scheduled hiatus from his show Friday, with Michael Smerconish taking over hosting duties on Cuomo’s Prime Time.

Cuomo has not recently made mention of his politician brother’s troubles either on the show or on his podcast, The Handoff – nor has he referred to the fact that he, too, has faced scrutiny for his involvement in crafting Gov Cuomo’s responses to the allegations.

On Thursday, Cuomo told his podcast co-host Don Lemon, who will be joining him in the Hamptons: “Every year I take my birthday week off. I’m looking forward to it.”

He continued: “I’ll be fishing, I’ll be hanging out with you and I’ll be making memories with the kids.

“I’ll be right here at home because I don’t know why I’d go anywhere else than the East End of Long Island during the summer,” said Cuomo, who was born and raised in Queens. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world.”

An independent investigation released earlier this week that was overseen by Attorney General Letitia James found that Gov Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women and that his administration retaliated against at least one of them for going public with their allegations.

State lawmakers told the governor Thursday that their ongoing impeachment investigation is almost done and gave him a deadline of August 13 to provide additional evidence. The Assembly’s judiciary committee has been investigating since March whether there are grounds to impeach him over the report’s allegations, misleading the public about Covid-19 outbreaks at nursing homes and using state resources and staff for his $5million book deal.

The committee’s next meeting on the matter is scheduled for Monday – the same day as the birthday of his brother, who also came up in the report. It found that lines provided by the journalist were included in his brother’s official February statement responding to the sexual harassment allegations and that Chris Cuomo had also been copied on advisory emails about the situation.

The CNN anchor apologized in May for his role but maintains that he never attempted to influence the network’s coverage of his brother.