Chris Cuomo gets emotional as Ted Cruz calls out New York's mishandling of COVID-19

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared on Chris Cuomo's segment on CNN Wednesday evening to talk about the coronavirus—a virus that has ravaged the state of New York, where Cuomo's brother Andrew Cuomo presides.

Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross posted a segment of the discussion between Cruz and Cuomo, tweeting: "This is hilarious. CNN has more thin skinned anchors than all the other networks combined."

Cuomo kicked off the heated exchange by saying that "when you hear two hundred thousand people die, you don't say what it is. I'm saying that when you could have slowed it [the coronavirus] down, and you didn't, you own it."

Cruz wasted no time in shooting back: "Your brother [Andrew Cuomo] has presided over the state with the highest death rate in the country."

Cuomo interrupted by saying that "New York's record will stand for itself," dodging the obvious blunders his brother has made in stifling the spread of the virus since it broke out earlier this year.

The senator noted that though Governor Cuomo did not intentionally mean to allow those New Yorkers to die, it is wrong to play politics with the stats of a virus that has affected the entire country. Cruz went on to say that he believed it would be reasonable to talk about the policy mistakes in New York and New Jersey that has resulted, at the time of this writing, in 48,879 deaths, making up nearly 25 percent of all coronavirus fatalities in the country.

When Cruz said that putting infected patients in nursing homes was a colossal blunder that ended in the death of thousands, Cuomo refused to own up to it by saying that it was not unique to New York or New Jersey—that many places were doing the same thing. Cruz hit home his point by saying that that was not the case, which is why the death rate in New York is "four times the death rate in Texas."

Cuomo finally snapped when Cruz held on his brother failing to do all he could in stemming the spread of the virus in the country's largest city, saying: "It was a learning curve, and mistakes were made, and they [Cuomo] changed things as soon as they could."

Cruz fired back: "Then don't be a hypocrite about it."

"Chris, this pandemic has been an enormous challenge across the country. I think Democrats and Republicans are trying in good faith to keep people safe, but I think we can also have reasonable policy discussions about what works," Cruz said.