Chris Cuomo Fell for a Deepfake of AOC, and Then Didn't Apologize for It

As deepfake videos become increasingly common on the internet and also more believable, it's more important than ever to keep an eye out for content that might not be real. NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo learned that lesson the hard way after sharing a video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in which she appeared to be dedicating time on the floor of the House of Representatives to talking about Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad.

Although this has created some controversy online, it has not yet made it into the halls of Congress, despite what Chris might want to think. Here's what he said about why he shared it, and why he hasn't really apologized yet.

In the fake video, AOC says things like “watching that sultry little temptress squeeze into a Canadian tuxedo” and describes the ad as "blatant Nazi propaganda."

Many people who watched it rightly identified that it had been generated by AI, but Chris seemed to be fooled.

“Nothing about Hamas or people burning jews' cars ... but Sweeney jeans ad? Deserved time on floor of Congress? What happened to this party? Fight for small business ... not for small culture wars," he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The post has since been deleted, but it was up long enough for AOC herself to offer a correction.

“This is a deepfake dude. Please use your critical thinking skills. At this point you’re just reposting Facebook memes and calling it journalism," she wrote, pointing out that as a journalist, Chris is supposed to hold himself to a rigorous standard for sharing information.

Even after Chris had been called out, though, he offered an apology that only sort of suggested he felt bad.

“You are correct ... that was a deepfake (but it really does sound like you). Thank you for correcting," he wrote.

AOC has been a vocal critic of Israel's policies in Gaza for some time now, and as Cuomo's initial post suggested, he seemed to want to get her to condemn Hamas.

“I’m going to assume you were trying to reply to me and burped this tweet into the ether instead. You seem to struggle with knowing how to write an apology. Do you need help? Maybe you should call someone," AOC wrote after seeing Chris's second post.

“Burped? You can do better ... you are a New Yorker! I am sorry I didn’t listen to the whole clip ... obviously wrong. I do struggle ... to understand why you won’t tell Hamas to surrender ... you have ducked it repeatedly ... do you apologize for that? Far more worthy of reply — and offensive — than an errant tweet, no?” he wrote in response to her retort.

Of course, the whole hubbub started because Chris shared a video of her that contained remarks she never made. Whether or not AOC is condemning Hamas seems like an entirely separate question from whether a journalist working for a major news outlet should share misinformation on social media.