On Wednesday morning, Albert Watkins—lawyer to the so-called “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. the guy who stormed the Capitol wearing horns and fur but no shirt—appeared on CNN in what seemed to be a mild attempt to walk back his very bad decision to describe the Capitol insurrectionists of January 6th as “f*cking retarded” and f*cking short-bus people.” But he made a big mistake (in a long list of them, obviously) when he dared to invoke the name of Chris Cuomo, CNN’s muscle-bound darling of prime time, in explaining his decision to use such triggering language:
“I was on Chris Cuomo when he decided the way to respond to my suggestion that these people needed compassion and patience and help was to call them ‘crazy.’”
Neither Cuomo nor his bulging biceps were about to let that comment lie. So Watkins appeared on CNN for a second time on Wednesday, this time as a guest on Cuomo Prime Time, in order to set the record straight about exactly what was said during Cuomo’s interview with Watkins way back in January as well as which product(s) Watkins uses to smooth his hair “so brilliantly and luxuriously back” (Cuomo’s words). What followed was a lot of this:
Cuomo: I never called them “crazy.”
Watkins: Well, I’ll tell you, my memory is that you called them—or called my client—crazy.
Cuomo: I have the transcript.
Watkins: Well you know I’d love you to share it with me.
Cuomo: I don’t have to, I’m just telling you you’re wrong. But I’ll give it to you.
Watkins: You don’t have to share anything with me. I’ll share with you.
Not exactly Frost/Nixon.
The sometimes-combative—at least as “combative” as two totally chilled-out dudes can get—dialogue only continued from there, with Watkins barely addressing his highly offensive language. He was more interested in changing the narrative surrounding his client and painting Chansley as a… peacemaker? Yes, Watkins, with a totally straight face, actually said that “In the case of Jacob Chansley, he was helping law enforcement garner items that had been stolen from them, stopping a theft that was going on.”
When Cuomo reminded Watkins that his client “entered the Capitol. He was flying in there with his spear. He was saying obnoxious things,” Watkins deemed that a total “mischaracterization.”
You can watch the full interview over at Mediaite.