“Rules for thee, but not for me” may as well be the Cuomo family motto.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who announced on March 31 that he has the coronavirus, broke quarantine on Easter Sunday to take his wife and children to look at an undeveloped property in East Hampton, New York, a full 30-minute drive from their home in Southampton, New York.

Note that his case of the disease was fully confirmed at that point. He was not just taking a risk in the event that he might catch or spread the coronavirus. He knowingly carried the virus to another town — an act that is not just selfish but also hypocritical, considering Cuomo is the guy who spends his evenings on CNN complaining that the White House’s pandemic response efforts are insufficient.

Maureen Callahan writes in the New York Post:

"As lowly New Yorkers continue to heed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s orders to stay indoors, at great personal and economic cost, his sick brother decided there was no better time than Easter Sunday to check out undeveloped property he bought in East Hampton.



"Again: undeveloped property. All unnecessary construction is halted. There was literally no reason for Chris Cuomo to be there."

Cuomo himself admits to breaking quarantine. He claims he was accosted on April 12 by a bicyclist who demanded to know why the CNN anchor was out and about even though he knew he has the coronavirus. The way Cuomo tells the tale, it sounds as if he somehow had a leg to stand on and it was this nosy bicyclist who was in the wrong.

“I don’t want some jackass, loser, fat-tire biker being able to pull over and get in my space and talk bullshit to me,” Cuomo said in a SiriusXM interview. “I don’t want to hear it.”

The anchor continued, complaining that the confrontation reminded him that being famous means he does not have the freedom to tell people like that bicyclist to “go to hell.” (Historically speaking, however, telling strangers to “go to hell” has not been a problem for Cuomo.)

“That matters to me more than making millions of dollars a year,” he said, “I want to be able to tell you to go to hell, to shut your mouth. … I don’t get that doing what I do for a living. Me being able to tell you to 'shut your mouth, or I will' — do you the way you guys do each other.”

Remember: Cuomo's SiriusXM tirade came after a cyclist rightly demanded to know why a celebrity virus-carrier was not sheltering in place. Talk about temper tantrums! The cyclist, for his part, tells a different version of events, one where Cuomo was not so restrained and meek as he claims to have been.

“I said to him,” the cyclist recounted for the New York Post, “‘Your brother is the coronavirus czar, and you’re not even following his rules — unnecessary travel.”

The man said that Cuomo responded by saying, “Who the hell are you? I can do what I want! He just ranted, screaming, ‘I’ll find out who you are!’"

The CNN anchor then reportedly told the cyclist, who has filed a police report, "This is not the end of this. You’ll deal with this later. We will meet again.'"

Given the CNN anchor’s remarks following the confrontation (“jackass,” “loser,” “fat-tire biker,” etc.), I am inclined to believe the cyclist's version of the story. Then again, given Cuomo's integrity and fact-based journalistic style — I am definitely inclined to believe the cyclist.

So yes, the CNN anchor believes he is above the rules that his own brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is demanding that everyone else follow. Cuomo the Lesser’s behavior is extra galling considering that he uses his nightly CNN program to pretend like he is FDR doing a fireside chat while also railing against the White House’s coronavirus relief efforts.

“On Easter Sunday, you know what?” Cuomo asked on April 8 while yelling at a selectively edited video of President Trump. “I will be sick, and I will be sick for some time to come. … I demand the truth for my situation. I demand the truth for you, as well. Again, too many of us have parents, loved ones, and kids in the balance.”

Four days later, Cuomo drove 30 minutes from his home to inspect an undeveloped property. Four days after that, Cuomo announced that his wife had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

It is fine if Cuomo wants to attack the White House’s pandemic response. There is plenty to criticize. But the CNN anchor should get his own house in order first.