The former ABC News producer who accused disgraced CNN host Chris Cuomo of sexual harassment predicted he will be back on the air soon, even after CNN suspended him indefinitely this week.
Shelley Ross, who alleged in September that Cuomo touched her inappropriately in front of her husband while they were colleagues and later apologized to her in an email, said CNN’s suspension of Cuomo is “meaningless.”
“There is more to accountability than a suspension,” Ross told Fox News. “Chris Cuomo has always maintained he was not an adviser, he was a brother.
“He lied to CNN and his viewers,” she said. “He needs to publicly acknowledge his wrongdoing to women, to victims of sexual harassment, assault and gender bias, to his colleagues, to the other journalists he compromised or tried to, and to the viewers he misled.”
Cuomo was kicked off the air on Tuesday after the New York attorney general’s office released records proving he used his position with CNN to get information on the women who accused his brother, former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, of sexual harassment.
“When asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out,” Cuomo told investigators.
When asked if CNN will go one step further and fire Chris Cuomo, Ross said, “no, given CNN’s great depth of forgiveness of sex offenses.” She seemed to be referring to CNN’s refusal to fire legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after he masturbated on a Zoom call with several colleagues.
Andrew Cuomo resigned in August to avoid a likely impeachment trial, after an investigation led by James’s office found he sexually harassed at least 11 women. Cuomo was subsequently charged with a misdemeanor sex crime complaint and, if found guilty, could land him on a sex offender registry.
