Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson described CNN's Chris Cuomo as 'illiterate' and a 'buffoon' on Tuesday night - but accused the network of bowing to pressure with their decision to suspend him.
CNN at around 5pm on Tuesday announced they had suspended star anchor Chris Cuomo after acknowledging that he provided greater assistance to his brother Andrew over sexual misconduct allegations than he had previously admitted.
The network said that Cuomo, 51, was suspended indefinitely, with Anderson Cooper extending his hour-long show to two hours, to cover Chris's 9pm slot.
Carlson was gleeful about the demise of one of CNN's biggest stars.
'Like most Americans, we never actually watched The Chris Cuomo Show - assuming that's was its name,' the 52-year-old said.
Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night called Chris Cuomo 'illiterate', and 'an idiot', but said he was right to defend his 'loathsome' brother, because he was family
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'But we saw clips and it transfixed us.
'How, we wondered, how could a man who could barely speak English wind up with a paying job on television?
'Some kind of weird affirmative action program for the illiterate?
'We never figured it out. It was remarkable to see it.
'Sentence after badly mangled sentence, a bouillabaisse of incomprehensible grammar - we couldn't understand any of it.
'It was a kind of performance art: a communicator wholly unable to communicate.'
He mocked Cuomo for his weightlifting obsession, and for being caught multiple times without a face mask, indoors and out - despite repeatedly stressing on air the importance of wearing one.
'Chris Cuomo was a buffoon,' Carlson said.
'He was also, in the way that buffoons tend to be, incredibly self-righteous and false.'
Chris Cuomo (left) is seen with his older brother Andrew, who was governor of New York until he resigned following a sexual harassment scandal in August
But, Carlson said, he was sad that Cuomo was forced out for defending his brother.
He said that CNN had bowed to pressure from liberal media, noting that The Atlantic on Tuesday morning published an article calling for Cuomo to be fired. Carlson said that The Atlantic sealed Cuomo's fate.
Carlson called Andrew Cuomo 'loathsome', but said Chris was right to defend him.
'Your most basic obligation is to the people you are related to,' said Carlson.
'When they need your help - no matter who they are, even if you're the governor of a state, even if they are horrible people - you help them anyway because it's your family.
'Chris Cuomo may be an idiot - and he is - but he understands that.
'What a thing to be fired for.'
The network's statement said: 'The New York attorney general's office released transcripts and exhibits Monday that shed new light on Chris Cuomo's involvement in his brother's defense,' CNN said on Tuesday.
'The documents, which we were not privy to before their release, raise serious questions.
'When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother's staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly.
Chris Cuomo on Monday night ignored the subject of his own communications with his brother Andrew and his team earlier this year, during the then-governor's sexual harassment scandal
'But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first, and job second.
'However these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother's efforts than we previously knew.
'As a result we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.'
Anderson Cooper filled in for Chris on Tuesday night, anchoring both his own and then Chris's show, and read the statement from CNN out on air.
'Some news, now, about this network - it involved Chris Cuomo, the host of Cuomo Prime Time,' Cooper said, before reading the prepared remarks.
