Brothers Andrew and Chris Cuomo live-stream together during New York governor's coronavirus briefing
Live from New York, it's the Cuomo Brothers. Governor Andrew Cuomo had a special guest at his daily coronavirus press briefing Thursday — his younger brother Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor who was diagnosed with coronavirus earlier this week.
The brothers spoke by live-stream for about 15 minutes, with the governor in Albany and his brother calling in from his basement. The two checked up on each other, joked around and credited each other for how they've been handling their respective roles during the crisis.
"I'm doing pretty well, all things considered," Chris Cuomo said. "This is very tough. I get it now. I've now become part of this group of people who have this virus, and they're reaching out."
Despite his symptoms, he has continued to anchor his CNN show from home. On the show, he described having hallucinations from his 103-degree fever — including a vision of his late father, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who died in 2015. At the news conference, he also described a dream he'd had about his brother.
"You had on a very interesting ballet outfit, and you were dancing in the dream, and you were waving a wand and saying, 'I wish I could wave my wand and make this go away,'"he said. "And then you spun around and you danced away."
"Well, that's a lot of metaphoric reality in that one," the governor replied, laughing. "I thank you for sharing that with us. That was kind of you. Obviously, the fever has affected your mental capacity."
The governor said his brother was doing "a great public service" by still doing his CNN show from his basement even while battling the virus. "It demystifies this, it takes a lot of the unknown out of the situation," he said. "You are answering questions for millions of Americans — 'If I get it, what happens?'"
Chris Cuomo, in turn, praised his brother for his response to the virus in New York — the state that by far has the most confirmed cases. And he said it was a good time to remember some wisdom from their father.
"You're doing everything you can," Chris Cuomo said. "Look, what's one of the big lessons in life that Pop always used to tell us? Certain things you're not gonna be able to control. Certain things are gonna happen. This virus is one of them."
When his brother signed off, the governor said they would "go fishing, have a drink and laugh about it" whenever the crisis finally passed.
"I've never been prouder of you than I am right now," the governor said. "I love you, everybody loves you, this is going to be fine."
