Chris Cuomo Spars with Anti-Vax Restaurant Owner in Tense CNN Interview

Chris Cuomo should have known exactly what he was getting himself into when he invited Tony Roman, a Huntington Beach, California restaurant owner who is requiring "proof of being unvaccinated" from patrons, onto CNN's Prime Time last night. The two disagreed from the get-go, and things quickly got heated as Roman spouted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine and his "pro-freedom stand."

If Cuomo thought he'd be able to change Roman's mind, he was sorely mistaken: after five minutes of sparring, the CNN host declared that his guest "sound[s] like an idiot," and booted him off the air. "Look, it's just stupid," he told his audience after the fact. "'I'm pro-freedom. It's not about the vaccine, it's about freedom.' What the hell is he talking about?"

Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9:00 PM ET on CNN.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.