NewsNation host Chris Cuomo is being trolled on social media after falling for a deepfake video purporting to show New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussing the Sydney Sweeney jeans furore on the House floor.
Cuomo posted an Instagram video on his X account on Wednesday – believing it to be real, having apparently not noticed its watermark admitting that the clip was “parody 100% made with AI” – that showed “AOC” arguing that Sweeney’s new American Eagle commercial, in which she declares that she has “great jeans”, a pun on “genes,” is racist.
Accompanying the post, the anchor wrote in a fever of righteous indignation: “Nothing about hamas or people burning jews cars. But sweeney jeans ad? Deserved time on floor of congress? What happd to this party? Fight for small business …not for small culture wars.”
In addition to the watermark and the fact that Congress is not in session, Cuomo was also not skeptical of the language used by “AOC” in the video.
“Sydney Sweeney looks like an Aryan goddess, and the American Eagle jeans campaign is blatant Nazi propaganda,” the AI Ocasio-Cortez tells Congress.
“I mean, f***. Watching that sultry little temptress squeeze into a Canadian tuxedo three sizes too small with her bouncy little funbags on the screen staring at you, piercing through the core of your soul with those ocean-blue eyes that could resurrect the Fuhrer from his grave in Argentina, is something that should alarm every American citizen because in America, beauty is not defined by whiteness.
“Oh no, it is defined by the number of victim groups of which you are a member, skinny, attractive, blonde-haired, blue-eyed cisgender women descended from the slave daddy oppressors of this nation. And any man who [masturbates] while thinking about a woman like this probably hates Black people, probably hates gay people, and they certainly hate the diversity of our great nation.”
The fake representative concludes her rousing address by declaring: “So I say, instead of simping for the Sidneys, we should be celebrating the Shaniquas. Instead of worshipping the hot, straight blonde, what about the obese alpha? People with blue hair. They need love too. And to all the haters who say companies that go woke go broke, I’d rather be poor than a f*****g Nazi.”
One of the first to call out the credulous Cuomo over the blunder was the real Ocasio-Cortez, who told him: “This is a deepfake dude. Please use your critical thinking skills. At this point, you’re just reposting Facebook memes and calling it journalism.”
The journalist took down the post in question and responded: “You are correct… that was a deepfake (but it really does sound like you). Thank you for correcting. But now to the central claim: show me you calling on hamas to surrender or addressing the bombing of a car in st louis belonging to the idf american soldier?…dude?”
Ocasio-Cortez replied in withering style: “You seem to struggle with knowing how to write an apology. Do you need help? Maybe you should call someone.”
The anchor later addressed the controversy on his show, admitting his mistake while also doubling down on his attack on the congresswoman for supposedly ignoring issues in the Middle East and underachieving as a legislator.
The attempted pivot did not shield him from further criticism, with Piers Morgan posting: “Oh dear Chris Cuomo – perhaps spend less time bitching about me and more time trying to spot obvious fakes.”
Tim Miller of The Bulwark commented: “It doesn’t augur well for our societal AI future if a professional news anchor gets tricked by a video that has a ‘100% parody’ watermark.”
Mike Isaacs, tech reporter for The New York Times, said the incident provided an ample demonstration of why he is “increasingly convinced we need to administer the equivalent of drivers license tests for access to the internet every five years, forever.”
Pundit Mehdi Hasan urged the newsman to apologize, while Keith Olbermann commented that it remains “a constant struggle to decide which is the dumber one, Chris Cuomo or Andrew Cuomo.”
Cuomo was not the only person taken in by the deepfake. Some commentators responding to the original video likewise assumed it was real and accused Ocasio-Cortez of being “jealous” of Sweeney’s beauty.
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