Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon share fawning hand-off as they ignore host's role in ...

CNN's Chris Cuomo shared a fawning and cringeworthy exchange with Don Lemon as they praised each other's kindness and friendship while ignoring revelations Chris advised his disgraced brother Andrew on his response to the sex harassment scandal.

The pair said they were thankful for each other's presence in their lives as they discussed their respective Thanksgivings in a hand-off branded 'nauseating' by viewers. 

Lemon told his co-host: 'It's good to see you, I know you had a great thanksgiving, I hope you did. I missed you. 

'I'm grateful for your friendship and your love. I think you're fantastic, one of the kindest people I know on this planet.

'There you go, I meant every word.'

Cuomo replied: 'I'm thankful for you in my life, it was great to see you having a good time, I like the Friendsgiving, our tradition.

'For us, it was great to be in the house for the first time and it was all good man, one memory at a time, it's always better with you but it's good to know you were having fun where you were.'

Viewers slammed the pair for not mentioning the growing scandal around Chris who had previously insisted he had never been deeply involved in his brother Andrew's sex probe. 

CNN said their star host's fate will be decided in the 'next several days' after damning texts showed how he helped his brother and used sources to dig up 'dirt' on accusers - moves that drew the ire of the former governor's first accuser.

Bombshell documents released on Monday by the office of the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, show that Chris exchanged dozens of text messages with his brother Andrew's top aide, Melissa DeRosa.

Chris Cuomo had told investigators under oath that they only had 'irregular contact'.

The 51-year-old news anchor used his show on Monday to discuss Omicron, the new COVID variant, and the row between far right congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Ilhan Omar, the Muslim congresswoman representing Minnesota.

He then discussed smash-and-grab robberies across the country, and rising crime.

When he was criticized for failing to mention the scandal, CNN's media commentator tweeted: 'For what it's worth, when Chris Cuomo addressed his actions on the air back in August, he said "this will be my final word on it," and he hasn't addressed the matter on TV since.'

Chris said on his show: 'I hope your Thanksgiving was a reminder for everybody of the good people, and the good things, in your life,' he said.

'Lord knows we could use the help, right?'

He began his show with a discussion of Omicron.

'I will take a little bit of a different take than a lot of other media. I don't know that it helped, this Thanksgiving holiday, to have the news media blasting word of this new variant, Omicron.

'Of course the information is news. But the timing, the tone, the hype, goes way beyond that which is justified by the urgency at this point.

'We don't know that much.'

He said the 'more questions than answers' presentation was because it was new, and it was being spun as being deeply troubling.

'They don't know symptoms - anecdotally, a clinician said they were mild.

'Instead, there is too much talk about not knowing if it's resistant. We don't know if it's worse than Delta.'

He lamented 'the feverish concern'. 

Chris's decision on Monday not to discuss the saga involving his involvement in his brother's situation came despite previously having vowed to be open with his viewers. 

The New York-born presenter has had a difficult time trying to judge when to discuss the scandal, and when to ignore it.

On March 1, he said that he was aware of the accusations about his brother, after a third woman came forward to accuse him, but could not report on it.

'Obviously I am aware of what is going on with my brother,' he said. 

'And obviously I cannot cover it because he is my brother. Now, of course CNN has to cover it. They have covered it extensively and they will continue to do so.'

He then moved on, having thanked his audience 'for being straight with me, and I've always been straight with you'. He said he 'always cared very deeply about these issues, and profoundly so.'

Several weeks of extremely uncomfortable handovers then ensued, as Chris refused to discuss the news - which at the time was a big story - while his co-hosts before and after discussed it extensively. 

Despite having said he did not want to talk about it, when news of his assistance for his brother emerged in May, Chris apologized to viewers and colleagues.

When the New York attorney general's report was published, on August 3, Chris Cuomo pointedly refused to discuss it - even while it was the lead item on his colleagues' shows. 

On August 16, shortly after Andrew resigned, Chris addressed it again, defending his behavior during the sex harassment scandal engulfing his brother - telling CNN viewers that he was not an adviser to Governor Andrew Cuomo, but rather: 'I'm a brother.' 

Chris's stated intention of ignoring the story, and then being forced repeatedly to address it, has led to the anchor having a torrid year, with frequent calls for him to be fired. 

In a statement to DailyMail.com on Monday evening, CNN said: 'The thousands of pages of additional transcripts and exhibits that were released today by the NY Attorney General deserve a thorough review and consideration. 

'We will be having conversations and seeking additional clarity about their significance as they relate to CNN over the next several days.'

Lindsey Boylan, the first of 12 woman to publicly accuse the former governor of sexual harassment, shared a scathing take on the documents on Monday.

'It's almost as if a whole system is set up to protect powerful men from accountability,' she tweeted. 

'Two things I will never fully understand: how many people can let abuse after abuse happen without speaking up and how many people need to see a group of women cry on camera to believe we are telling the truth about that abuse.'

Boylan, a former Cuomo adviser, came forward publicly last December on Twitter to claim that the governor had sexually harassed her, made comments on her looks and at one point asked if she would play a game of strip poker with him.

Text messages released by James' office detailed Cuomo's role in his brother's public relations crisis as he told senior members of the governor's team, 'we are making mistakes we cant afford.' 

In one text, on March 3, he also asked DeRosa to 'please let me help with prep'.

He also crafted at least two statements for his brother, one regarding accuser Charlotte Bennett's claims, and another on Andrew's refusal to resign. Lines from the latter statement he provided by text were used by his brother.

Texts also revealed Chris Cuomo used his connections to find out about accusers, telling DeRosa he had 'a lead on the wedding girl,' in reference to Anna Ruch, who told The New York Times the governor became 'aggressive' toward her during a September 2019 wedding.

Other texts show that he asked another journalist for information on a story being written by Ronan Farrow for the New Yorker, which centered around Boylan - whose story prompted other woman to come forward. 

She said he cupped her face in his hands and asked: 'Can I kiss you?'

Cuomo - who earns $6 million annually at CNN, according to Celebrity Net Worth - later told investigators that he reached out to a 'non-journalistic' source while fishing for information on the wedding incident.

He also told investigators that as the scandal exploded, he reached out other journalists to learn whether other complainants might come forward.

The text exchange at one point turned to Farrow, who won the Pulitzer Prize and helped launch the #MeToo movement after his reporting on disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.