Chris Cuomo sympathizes with Justin Timberlake after drunk driving arrest

The world needs to be kinder to controversial Justin Timberlake and “all the other celebrities who have done this,” Chris Cuomo said Tuesday. But instead, too many of us are rushing to the “gotcha moment” that “eats us up” because “it makes us feel better about ourselves.” Never mind that Timberlake, who was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Sag Harbor, posed a danger to himself and others. “I don’t even know if the guy did it,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo began his post by saying, “What you do most often is what you do best.” In other words, practice what you preach: The idea is that the habits we maintain most consistently are the ones we’re best at. Cuomo then used that lesson as a moral “gotcha” moment for himself.

“That’s what we do most often in this society: spread negativity,” he said. “And it hit me, not because I’m a huge Justin Timberlake fan, although I wish I could sing and dance like him. I live near where he was arrested, very close to Sag Harbor, New York.”

“Beautiful place, a dream life my wife and I have built for our family. The town is full of media,” he continued. “For what? The guy isn’t even here anymore.”

Cuomo acknowledged that “driving under the influence of alcohol does matter” and that “a lot of pain, death and loss comes from people not drinking responsibly, let alone driving under the influence.” However, he expressed doubt as to whether Timberlake was even under the influence of alcohol, as the singer reportedly “did not take the breathalyzer test.

Timberlake was pulled over after he disregarded a stop sign and left his lane late Monday night. He told the officer he had been drinking a martini and refused to take the breath test. AL.com reported that court documents noted, “His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, ​​his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, he was unable to divide his attention, he spoke slowly, was unsteady on his feet and performed poorly on all standardized sobriety tests.”

The outlet also reported that the cop did not know who Justin Timberlake was. A second source reported, “Justin said quietly, ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’ The cop responded, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.'”

The problem, Cuomo continued, is the way Timberlake’s arrest was covered. “This is not a public engagement because we don’t cover drunk driving,” he said. “This is for the local papers, for the police reporter and your local paper. It’s the appetite for the trap that’s tormenting us. We want to show Justin Timberlake – and now we’re putting him in line with all the other celebrities who have done this.”

“Let’s judge him,” Cuomo continued. “Let’s judge her because it makes us feel better. What is the magic of daytime television? Showing that people have lives that are even shittier than your own – especially when they are prominent names.”

The audience, he continued, “likes to see them fall in order to satisfy this strange need to bring others down.”

“And I have to be honest: When I saw all that media there, I was just glad they weren’t there because of me,” Cuomo said, in an apparent reference to his own public reactions following the allegations of sexual misconduct and to his advising his brother Andrew Cuomo on his own case.

Although “drinking and driving plays a role,” he added, it is not reported nationally unless “it is a famous person,” Cuomo continued.

“We used to report on what was important,” he said, “what could make things better, rather than talking about what was making us worse. And look, I know I do that too. Everything I talk about tonight is negative. But we do it to achieve a higher goal, not just to talk about other people’s problems in some misguided sense of satisfaction or justice.”

The coverage of Timberlake, he continued, was “just another example of us showing our worst side.”

Aside from Timberlake’s questionable moral character, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that 37 people die in car crashes related to drunk driving or driving under the influence in the United States, or one person every 39 minutes. In 2022, 13,524 people died in alcohol-related crashes.

There is no “safe” amount of alcohol in your system that you should have before getting behind the wheel, the organization also noted. In 2022, 2,337 people were killed in crashes involving a driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.01 to 0.07 g/dL. It is illegal to drive with a BAC of 0.08 g/dL.

You can watch the segment with Chris Cuomo in the video above.