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Chris Cuomo
This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in places that could expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, their US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply. Today should not be a tough day. Today is Thanksgiving. I have never seen one where people were so worried. I want to talk about why. I want to talk about what I'm doing about it. But most importantly, I think there's just a greater and obvious truth that we're all missing. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. Let's just get after it right now. This is my favorite day of the year, okay? I love my kids birthdays, but I'm saying in terms of holidays, this is everything. Thanksgiving, don't spare me or miss me, as they say these days, with the idea of where it originated and the exploitation of the natives. I get it, I get it. Everything is flawed, okay? And you can't undo everything because there are elements of things that you don't like. And that's politics. Let's put it to the side. That's my whole point. Thanksgiving is about food and friends and family and caring and remembering taking one day to do what we say we're supposed to do every day. And I need it so badly. I am so poor at practicing gratitude. I don't even like when people say it. Practicing gratitude, manifesting yap, yap, yap. Whatever it is. It sounds so woo woo to me. But there's something very basic about this and I think we need it this year. I'm telling you, it is not bigots versus non bigots. These divisions are largely manufactured for the advantage of the political parties. People voting for Harris doesn't make them a radical. Doesn't mean that they hate Trump. Some do, but not in the main. People who vote for Trump doesn't mean that they're a bigot. Some are, but not in the main. And even if. Look, even if you can't get your head around how they don't see that they needed a change away from Democrats or how they can't see how anyone could vote for Trump with everything we know about him. They did. Now what? I'm not inviting them. I keep hearing it. Can't have them around me. Can't deal with it. I'M telling you, you're making a mistake. As a 54 year old guy who is too often inwardly and outwardly defined by flaws and failings and mistakes, I'm telling you, don't make this one. Okay, Two reasons. One, if you think that you surround yourself with like minded people and you get better, there's as good a chance of that as the idea that when you talk, you learn, okay? When you talk, you don't learn. And if everybody's talking the same talk that you talk, then it's the same thing as if you were talking. So you don't learn. All right, you got to get out of this idea that the silo is okay because the other people are nuts. Yeah, there's some nutty people, but not in the main. Look, we just had an election where a majority of the country voted for Trump, okay? Why? I don't believe it's because of Trump. I believe it's because of the desire, almost the desperation to disrupt systems and culture and norms and narratives and media and social media and noise that they just think is way too far, way too much. But how could they vote for Trump? Because that's how strong the pull is. Now, some of them like Trump, some of them like him as a disruptor, but understand his flaws as a person. And some understand his flaws as a person think that he should be disqualified. But it's all a relative assessment. And what they care about most is not captured by the Democrats the way it was by the movement that Trump is in front of. And I don't think it's about red hats and I don't think it's about maga. I think that's all electioneering and that's all vanity and that's all for Trump's ego. And for some it's for identity. But people are worried and they want things to be better. I don't believe there's any better place to start than right there. These people that you don't want to be with may not agree with you on much of anything, but I guarantee you they agree that they want things better. Okay? And the idea that you are going to make decisions about who's in your life on the basis of their politics, when it's so manipulated, when it's so exaggerated, when it's all about hyperbole and it's all about spending weeks and months of barraging you with ads to believe that one guy's the next Hitler and the other one's a commie, and you think that that's a fair Basis of analysis of somebody's character, not them. It's barely a judge of the two candidates. You barely got an accurate picture of the two candidates, let alone the people who voted Thanksgiving. What are you grateful for in your life? For me, the food is the least of it. I don't even like turkey. I have so many that run around my house. It's a very interesting thing. Right around Thanksgiving, they all disappear. And it's not because they're getting shot and they're on plates. I think they know they're very savvy. Although if they're so savvy, why do they poke at the reflection of themselves in my car door? Which then gets them shot for sure? I don't know. But it's not about the food for me. It's about taking that time to recognize, holy shit, am I fortunate. Oh, wow. Wow, Do I have better than I deserve. And I get. I get the problem with that for some of you, that better than you deserve. No, you deserve everything. You deserve everything. You don't deserve everything. You don't. I even say that sometimes to people, but I don't really believe it. I don't. I've made mistakes. I do things wrong. I hurt the people who I'm supposed to take care of and love. I don't do my best at what matters. And yet. And yet my health is there, my kids are there, my family's there, my wife is there. And I do not deserve any of it. And I use that as motivation to try to do better for them and, by extension, for myself. Now, you don't have to agree with me about me, but you don't really know me. And more importantly, look, I signed up for your appraisal, okay? That's what I do. By talking into this fisheye, I'm saying, go ahead, judge me. Judge me. So you can judge me any way you want. And I think I give you a decent level of transparency based on that. Although more and more, I believe I should be focusing on your lives. I try to use mine as an example or an extension of yours, but, you know, you don't need to worry about my shit and me and my dynamics. You got your own. And my job is really not to you, about me, to help you, with you. And that's why I wanted to give you this message, because that's how Thanksgiving hits me every year. That I am surrounded by people who love me, who forgive me. The most powerful dynamic for me, in faith, in my choice of believing, that there is something more. And it's not easy. It's not easy. I mean, you could win the argument in what, five minutes that belief in God doesn't make sense. I know. I'm not looking to win the debate. It's a choice, because one we don't know. You don't know that there isn't one. I can't prove that there is, but. And much better minds than both of ours have struggled with this thing, the same thing, and arrived at both conclusions, but I choose to. And one of the things that draws me to that belief most is the divine concept of grace. Grace. And we say grace at the beginning of a meal. Why? Well, we're talking about God's grace. Which is what? Well, what it really is is the divine's extension of forgiveness that you don't deserve, sometimes called mercy. You lost the case. They're going to kill you. You throw yourself on the mercy of the court. And that is a small example of this amazing concept of God's grace that he forgives you, even though you do it again and you do it again and you say it again and you say it again and you forget again and you do bad again. Whatever it is he forgives you, just keep trying. Just keep trying. It's beautiful. It's amazing. It's so inspiring to me. It's so motivating to me. It's so sustaining to me because I need it so much. And my life's work is to try to need it less on my level and to extend it more through my own intentions and actions to everybody else. We have no business judging other people. And it's not even for me. Judge not lest you be judged yourself. No, it's not even that you'll be judged, you know, I mean, that's what happens. Shouldn't, but it happens, especially if you sign up for it. Especially with this fucking thing. That's all social media is, is judgment. Right, strong and wrong all day long. That's what that thing is. But this day, we get a chance to reset that. This day we get a chance to redefine that. Redefine the ethos, reset the mood, reset the vibe. And I think that you should surround yourself with as many people as you can fit. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Cozy Earth. Look, I use the bedding, okay? I even have a set of the jammies. Not a big jammies guy like Greg Ott is, he has all these different jammies with footies and all these things. Not my thing, but they are really cozy. And I wear them around the house. And the sheets are just no joke. You want your Cozy Earth pajamas by Christmas, you better order by December 13th. And by the way, you'll get free shipping. Oh no, I missed it. You can still get expedited shipping until December 20th. That way you get in there in time. Don't wait. Go to cozyearth.com Chris use my exclusive code Chris. You can get up to 40% off. That's crazy. Give the gift of luxury this season, okay? It's the holidays. Do it right. Cozyearth.com Chris if you get a post purchase survey, please tell Cozy Earth that you heard about them from the Chris Cuomo Project podcast. It'll help us keep doing business. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from 120 life. I've already told you I believe in this because we have high blood pressure in my family and we have gotten it under control. And part of the reason is 120Life. 120Life helps you manage blood pressure. And by the way, it's not just for high blood pressure. It's also beneficial for those with diabetes. It's a very valuable tool for overall health. It's endorsed by hundreds of doctors trusted by health care professionals, hundreds of doctors recommending it. It provides visible, measurable changes in blood pressure. How do you know? You just use a simple monitor. You can buy one at the drugstore and you track it yourself for a limited time. If you try 120Life, you will save 20% off. Use the code CHRIS20 at checkout at 120Life.com 120Life offers a risk free trial with a full refund. If you don't see lower numbers in just two weeks. Two weeks, you get your money back. How do you lose? And it tastes good, so it's not like you're gonna not enjoy the process. Go to 120lif e.com and use the code CHRIS20 and you get 20% off. There's nothing to lose except your high blood pressure numbers. Go to 120life.com and use the code CHRIS20. You get 20% off and free shipping today. Support for the Chris Cuomo Project comes from Ground News. Information overload. Look man, we're getting shit from all directions all the time on social media. You don't know what's true. You don't know what's exaggerated. You don't know what's consistent. You don't know the source. You need Ground News. Ground News is a website and an app that helps you make sense of the news by Aggregating, curating. Okay. Organizing related articles from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage. You compare how outlets from left, center and right cover the same story so you get factuality. Also, you can spot bias and sensationalism with the help of the app. Go to groundnews.com Chris. You get 40% off the ground News Vantage plan. What does that do? It unlocks access to all of their features. I think this is a genuinely cool, essential tool in today's world. They're doing important work and I hope you'll check them out. That's groundnews.com Chris. G R O U N D News. Now let's step sideways. This is what I usually do. Everybody's invited for Thanksgiving, okay? I love having people. I love it. I love it. My wife wanted to build a house, do exactly this. I spent all my money on it. I did. I did. I didn't know I was going to get fired at the time that I was doing it. But it gives us that opportunity now. This year I'm doing something different. We're traveling. I've never done this before unless it was for work, but I haven't missed many holidays. I've always, you know, made the choice to miss whatever the story was to stay with family on the holidays. I think it matters. But this year I got to travel because one of my kids goes to school abroad and they don't have Thanksgiving. And I want us to be together and it's going to be just us. And in a way that is an extension of this same reset that I'm talking about. Well, how you're saying let everybody else in and now you're going to keep it just to you. That's exactly what I want to do. You tell me not to different. I'm not living the way you guys are living with. Excluding people who voted for Trump, excluding people who voted for Harris. I don't play that, okay? That's not how I judge people and I try to not judge them at all. There are things that matter more than that. Bullshit, okay? We all want the same things. Every survey says this, okay? More than three quarters of us believe we all want the same things and this is a day to exercise that. So much of it is artificial. So much of the resistance and the division and the disagreement is bullshit. Look, I'll do it right now. Who wants no border security? No one. No one. Oh, yes they do. The Democrats want open borders. No. Some very left wing Democrats believe that America should let everybody in. That's its Mandate. Okay, okay. That's not the law. It's not going to be the law. It's just a boogeyman. Oh, it's more than just a few. No, it isn't. It's been exaggerated to you and it worked. Now undo it. Everybody wants that. What do you do with the people who are here illegally? It's got to depend, right? You really think they're going to round up all these people? It's not going to happen. It can't happen logistically, it can't happen financially, it can't happen legally, and I don't think it should happen morally. Why? Because they're not all the same. Yes, they all entered illegally. Come on. The guy who snuck across, who's busting his ass and building a business with somebody else framing houses is the same as the MS.13 guy who snuck across with fentanyl. Come on. They're not all the same. They're not all the same. And you get that. Gotta find the bad guys. You gotta find the people who came in here with bad intentions. You gotta root them out. And we should have been doing that all along. Obvious. Or what about all the rest of them? Who knows? Who knows? We have no idea what Trump's plan is or if even has one. So there's immigration, one of the most divisive issues. No brainer. Okay. We're basically on the same page about what it is. The economy. Who doesn't want a tax cut? It's about how you offset it. With what? Spending. And there's going to be a fight. Get rid of the Department of Education. All right, what would that mean? What would it look like? How do you do it? What do we lose? What is gained? That's how you do it. Stop the forever wars. What does that mean? Do you just abandon Ukraine? Do you just abandon Israel? That's not going to happen. So how do you do it? Right, but this was one of those big boogeymen. The economy, gas prices are. Oh, Trump will fix it. Yeah, we'll see. And I'm not being cynical. What do you think he can do? Oh, we're gonna drill, drill, drill. And that's gonna reduce our dependency on foreign oil. And all the gas prices is gonna come down and that's gonna bring down food prices. Well, one. That's not even an economic connection between the two on a macro level. That's not how it works. These are world markets. You can't drill your way into a gas price that is unique to the United States. The exclusion of no matter what else happens in the world market? Well, you gotta be able to make it better, though. Maybe a little, but not like a game changer. It's about the world market. Can you do better? Yes. But all of this. You know, the reason my father borrowed that phrase that you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose is because during a campaign you bullshit, okay? And then when you govern, you gotta do the actual work. And that's why you asking for plans. And this is why I said asking for plans of politicians and Trump getting written down because he only had concepts of a plan. All plans are bullshit. You've got to negotiate with the legislature. Doesn't matter that he has this plan of what he's gonna do, he doesn't get to enact. He's not a king. So all these things that have so hot and so divided, they're not even real. Well, I'm not going to be around someone who normalizes his kind of. Oh, because you're fucking perfect, right? Oh, come on. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but this guy, hey, what would you do if he was somebody's husband? What would you do if he was your cousin? What would you. What would you do? Call him out on his shit and then give him a hug? He's not only his worst things, right? Over half the country just voted for him. And not because they're bigots. See where you agree and then immediately see past the politics to the fact that these are human beings that you care about, that you share history with. Come on. Look, I tolerate it about, and to me, you can feel any way you want, okay? Red pill, the Democrat, Democrat, traitor, whatever, whatever you come up with, it doesn't affect my judgment about myself. I only look at it through the lens of what is effective in what I'm saying and how. Or not, and why. That's it. You know, you're not my brother, you're not my sister. You know, my friends do not define me that way. I cannot tell you how infrequently I discuss politics with my friends, who are a bunch of pretty sophisticated cats. We talk politics, of course it matters, but it's not our main thing. It doesn't define our friendship. I would do anything for my friends who voted for Trump, anything. I love them to death. My friends who voted for Harris, I love them to death. I get their concerns, especially if they're women or they're voting because of the women in their lives. I get it, I get it. I get it more than the overall electorate did. And I get the frustrations and the concerns about this country that have people overlook and put stock in Trump's ability to disrupt and stop and change what they want. I get it all, and I don't believe that they're coming from bad places. I don't have people like that in my life. I am thankful for them all. I am thankful for all of you. I am thankful not because it's easy, but because it is right and there is still right and wrong. I know I violate it all the time. So do you. But you forgive. You have to. Why? Because you need forgiveness yourself. You forgive because it's so much better than the alternative. Support for the Chris Cuomo Project comes from Everyday Dose. Say hello to the next generation of a cafe. Everyday Dose. I use it. I even dig the bag. It's got this kind of trippy, psychedelics, shimmery star thing going on. Everyday Dose combines coffee, but it's not all coffee. That's the combines part. Functional mushrooms, nootropics, collagen, protein. Why do you want all that stuff? Focus, clarity, energy, sleep. Not just caffeine. Also helps boost immunity. It ups your coffee game. I dig it. I use it. I put it right in my coffee maker, by the way. Head over to everydaydose.com Chris and you will get 25% off plus five free gifts with your first order. The first month you get a USB rechargeable frother works well. Gunmetal Dose spoon works good and I can bang my son on the head with it. Breathwork app by Othership Wellness booklet and sticker every month after you get amazing free gifts with your order. So go to everyday d o s e.com Chris get 25% off plus 5 free gifts with your first order. Support for the Chris Cuomo Project comes from Cozy Earth. Let me tell you something. When it comes to what to wear when you go to bed and what to be in when you go to bed. Two words. Cozy Earth. Why I love how it feels. It helps me stay warm when it's cold. It helps me stay cool when it's warm. How? I have no damn idea. But I'm telling you it works. And the more I wash them and I'm an Italian American from Queens, we wash stuff all the time. These things don't break down and they've actually gotten a little softer. Believe it or not, they started off soft. They make a sheet set out of bamboo that is so much more sustainable. So if you care about the environment and cutting down on what goes into our textiles, Cozy Earth is a no brainer. So wrap the ones you love in luxury with Cozy Earth. If you visit cozyearth.com Chris you use my exclusive 40% off code Chris, and you're going to give the gift of luxury this holiday season. Cozyearth.com Chris if you get a post purchase survey, please tell them where you heard about it. The Chris Cuomo Project. You know, I don't believe in Trump derangement syndrome. I don't believe that people are obsessed with exaggerating his flaws. I don't think that's true. I think that he is such an outlier in terms of how obnoxious the volume of mendacity and divisive things that it just overwhelms you. We're just not used to it. If we had 10 trumps in a row, then it wouldn't be impressive and then Trump wouldn't be Trump and he probably wouldn't have been elected because it's not his ideas, they're not new. It's his disposition towards those ideas. So that's something that you can move past. Well, I don't want to move past. Of course you do. You want progress, you want better. How come nobody is talking about getting anything done together? How come the conversation is all about, well, what are the Democrats going to do to beat their ass the next time? And how the right is celebrating the victory. In your face, your body, my choice. Stupid ugly emails to black people saying you've been selected to pick cotton. Stupid shit to Jews and other minorities. I don't know who's doing it. It doesn't matter on one level. What matters is that people believe that that is okay. You'll say, yeah, because of you normalizing Trump. No, no, that's not why. It's because we have become a society that is addicted to grievance and gotchas and less than and worse. And I'm telling you, you know this, so I'm not telling you, I'm reminding you, okay? I'm echoing what you have in your own head and heart. You have never given anybody advice to live that way in any other way of their life. You have never been advised to live that way in any other avenue of your existence. Never talking to your kid, talking to your wife, your husband, your brother, your sister, your buddy, your soul sister. You should be angry and ignore and avoid everyone who doesn't agree with you. Condemn them. Stay only with people who believe the same thing. Stick with your own. That's not America. Democracy is hard. This is a tough loss for the Democrats, he lost to an obnoxious and often intentionally ugly man with some ugly ideas, but they're not all ugly. But that's not all he is. And you have to be wide eyed about the possibilities for better. And that's what Thanksgiving is. I'm so grateful to be able to be at that table, to be able to be with family, to be healthy enough to eat, to be upright and taking nutrition, sustenance, surviving. It's also hard, it's also depressing, it's also sad on purpose. It's made that way. The algorithms literally are designed to try to foment these things. And this is a day that allows you to say fuck you, all of that, maybe that's the best way to see it. I know you thought I was going to say something else, but Thanksgiving and having everybody there agree, disagree, whatever, fuck you to all of these people and all of these mechanisms that are trying to make it so that you stay apart, don't give in, don't let the bastards get you down. You ever hear that expression, don't let them do it to you. Don't become like what you oppose. Don't become somebody who's isolationist, who stays away from people they don't agree with just because of freaking Trump or Harris or political campaign or an election. You can do better than that. You deserve better than that. And the people in your life who you care about, have them around. And maybe, just maybe, before you drink too much, take an opportunity just to hear their why. And now I don't want to hear about the conspiracy theory. I don't want to hear about what you heard. I want to hear about this thing. Just what was motivating you? And what do you want now? Move past the vote and into the mandate. What do you want to see happen? And if it's round up all the illegals, you can say to somebody, listen, I love you. I want to hear what you have to say. Don't call them illegals because they entered illegally, okay? They're still human beings. Don't dehumanize them. And don't roll your eyes and say that's not what I'm doing. Because that's how Trump got us to the brown menace and the poisoning the blood and all that other bullshit. They're human beings and they are breaking the law. Yes. And the law matters. Yes. And the mentoring illegally matters? Yes. It is not okay, so what do you want to see done about it? I want to round them all up. How? I want to have three years. Nobody comes in who fills the jobs? Oh, we'll have a different visa program. Doesn't work. They have a fully funded, fully, you know, invested, funded and executed visa program. We still have millions of open jobs that Americans don't want or can't do. What do we do? What's the balance? Have the conversation. Well, I don't like sanctuary cities because they shouldn't be able to hide. Okay? Who's going to give these people the resources to deal with them so they stop getting sued by people who say, rightly, that you're not affording due process to individuals? How are you going to deal with that? Because the federal government put sanctuary cities in a position. Right. Because they weren't coming to get the people. So what do we do? Mil? Trump's an asshole. The Democrats are the. Hey, I don't want to hear it. Let's pretend, ironically we're on the floor of the House of Representatives. You cannot make ad hominems. Don't insult me. Don't insult anybody. Insights, not insults. Let's have a fucking conversation. You want to have a conversation? Let's have a conversation. You want to have a fight? I'm not here for it. Or if you're a caveman like me. If you want to have a fight, let's go outside. I'll fight you right now. No, I'm kidding. Don't do that. I would do that, but I'm a jerk. You're not a jerk. All right? So let's have the conversation. Let's talk about what we both care about. There's so much more of that than this other shit. The concerns about our kids, what we're happy about with our kids. How much? My last thought. How much can you focus on what is right? How much attention can you give to your hopes for better and to what is good already? How much can you discuss about politics in terms of what works and we should do more of. And if you say, well, there is nothing, it's all broken. Don't feed me that shit. This country is doing more for more than any country in the developed world. Right? That's the old trope. America is the worst place in the world until you compare it to anywhere else. I would rather live in Norway. Bye. Because they want to come here. Not so much right now, because we've been a little scary to the rest of the world because of how we're treating one another. But it'll change. It is the land of opportunity and it is a beacon to the free world. And I know this because I have been fortunate enough to travel this world. And no, I don't agree with what the president elect says. I don't think he's helped the impression with a lot of people around the world, maybe some, but it hasn't been my experience of what Trump means to how people see America. We have been viewed even though we've clearly made mistakes around the world, often violent ones. We are seen as a place of sweet strength, not harsh strength. We are not China, we are not Russia. We believe in helping the little guy, not exploiting them. Not always, not well enough. But again, that's the trap. Negative, less than imperfect. What's wrong? What about what's right? What about why you care about these people that you invited, despite who they voted for, despite what they sent you on social media? That's what Thanksgiving can be about. And I really hope it is for you, because we need it. It is as nutritious as anything you're going to take in today, especially today. How much energy can you put into what is good, what works and what is right and why you care about the people that you had the nerve to invite around you. Now, that is worthy of giving thanks. I am deeply thankful for the opportunity I have. Greg Ott, new father First Thanksgiving is a daddy, right? Yeah, but I'm not on camera. Get over this. There's no camera. Get over yourself. Get over yourself. They can hear you. I know, but nobody wants to see you. We're going to have to put a graphic. You're no Grant Cardone. We're going to have to put a graphic. Listen in. I have so many people in my life who helped me, despite me, and I'm very fortunate and I am thankful. And that's why this day matters so much. I wish I could do it every day. I wish I could live this way every day. And I should. But I can't. It's a struggle. But today we can. Today we can. And I hope you do. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to be part of your life. Thank you for being a part of mine. And I wish you all good things. See how long you can go focusing on what is right, what is good, what is positive and what works. Let's get after it.