Chris Cuomo calls for apologies after second Trump assassination attempt

NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo went viral on social media Tuesday after he expressed sympathy for former President Donald Trump and excoriated public coverage of the second attempt on his life.

"I am ashamed of how we are responding and now responding to the threats on him. And I feel for his family," he said.

He further warned that claims Trump would upend American democracy were softening attitudes toward violence against him.

"We are playing a dangerous game with ourselves. He is not a despot in waiting. Okay, I don't buy it," he said. "You gotta care when somebody tries to kill somebody. I told you this before, and I've learned the lesson so many times myself around the world. Either you care when anyone is hurt, or you'll never really care about anyone getting hurt."

"I don't get it. That's why I reached out to Trump. I wanted to just say, 'Listen, I'm really sorry that this is going on and it's being dealt with this way,' not because I'm in favor of his politics or what he says," Cuomo said.

"I criticize him all the time. That's my job, and he deserves it, but he doesn't deserve this, a guy pointing AK 47 at him while he's playing golf," he went on. "And we take solace in the fact that the guy didn't get any rounds off?"

Secret Service agents on Sunday engaged with an armed suspect after one agent noticed the barrel of an Ak-47 protruding from the bushes where he was hiding. Trump was golfing at the time and the suspect was roughly 400-500 yards away. He fled the scene and was arrested by local authorities. He has been identified as Ryan Wesley Routh.

Routh's alleged attempt on Trump followed that of Thomas Matthew Crooks in July, when he opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pa.

"If I had been through what that guy's been through in the last two months, you would not know where I am," Cuomo contended. "You would never see me on TV again. No way I would do that. I don't know how he does. He's got kids. They're adults, but he's got grandkids. He's got a wife."

"People giving crap to Melania Trump, worrying about whether or not there was a plot around her husband. How could she not?" he asked. "People mock her and then her husband has a guy point[ing] with an AK 47 -- where are those people apologizing? That's what it's time for."

Former first lady Melania Trump last week expressed her doubts about the official narrative on the Butler shooting, saying "[t]here is definitely more to this story and we need to uncover the truth."