Cuomo Says Kavanaugh Recognized Parkland Father Fred Guttenberg and Deliberately Avoided Shaking His Hand

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo sided with Fred Guttenberg in an interview with Seth Meyers on Tuesday, saying that he thinks Brett Kavanaugh recognized the slain Parkland student's father and refused to shake his hand on purpose.

In the uncomfortable moment, which has since gone viral, Guttenberg went over to shake hands with Kavanaugh. The SCOTUS nominee seems to then shun the gun control activist before being whisked out of the room by security.

"I believe you will see the judge recognize the man and the gesture. He does nothing. Turns away. And then security escorts him," Cuomo said on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

"The White House says I'm completely wrong, that the video is clear evidence of the judge wanting to connect, not having time because he was whisked away by security."

Meyers then revisits the interaction by showing his viewers approximately five seconds of the clip.

"Yeah, it's a nice job. It's a real in-the-moment situation there," Meyers said after the clip ended. "Obviously, he doesn't have a lot of time to think about it. When you're a judge, one of the things you get to do, you get to take a lot of time. You get to deliberate for a great amount of time.

"But in the split second there, it did not seem like he made a good decision."

Cuomo responded: "The father of one of the kids who was murdered at Parkland reaches out his hand, says his name, and you don't shake their hand. Now, first thing we have to do is give the judge an ability to explain, okay? What was your understanding of it? Why did it happen that way?"

"My concern about it is twofold," the CNN anchor continues. "One, as we were talking about before, and we talk about often, we are not allowing ourselves to disagree with anybody with decency anymore. If you don't agree, they're your enemy. The president very much foments that. I think it's really toxic to our culture that's all based on tolerance and understanding that not everybody likes what everybody else says and is about."

He added: "The second thing is, the 'Don't believe your lying eyes' stuff that comes out of the White House. That was clear evidence that it wasn't the judge turning away from a man with their outreached hand? I mean, it's just crazy talk."

Cuomo also called out Kavanaugh's alleged refusal to shake Guttenberg's hand on his CNN show Cuomo Prime Time.

"Why did the judge turn away?" he said. "The White House says security intervened. No, they didn't. You're seeing the pictures right now. First, he turned away, then security came in. That's the damn truth."

"We need to hear it. Why?"