Gloria Vanderbilt would not be happy .
Gay CNN anchor Anderson Cooper went on air Thursday to defend CNN’s decision to host a town hall for former President Donald Trump.
It did not go well.
Cooper, who has anchored for CNN since the early 2000s, defended his TV home during the opening segment of “Anderson Cooper 360” Thursday.
“Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions and predictably continued to spew lie after lie after lie,” Cooper said. “I get it. It was disturbing.”
“The man you were so disturbed to see last night, that man is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president,” Cooper said. “You have every right to be outraged today, angry and never watch this network again, but do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?”
“After last night, none of us can say: ‘I didn’t know what was out there. I didn’t know what was coming.'” – Anderson Cooper
USA Today
Cooper’s apology for the network came before the public learned that the “Town Hall” audience was hand picked Trump supporters and questions were screened ahead of time. In other words: It was rigged.
The backlash was quick to follow.
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism, called out CNN for giving Trump a platform to rebuild his image and smear his accuser.
“CNN became a party to Trump’s need to psychologically ‘undo’ his defeat by getting the audience to applaud him *for being an assaulter,*” she tweeted. “The more approval authoritarians get, the more they feel emboldened to be even more lawless. This is why this ‘town hall’ was so dangerous.”
And as for Cooper himself?
Anderson Cooper's 30 pieces of silver. Instead of telling the truth, he cowered fearing his boss, Chris Licht. So Anderson threw his career into the toilet by gaslighting America instead of telling the truth. Shame on you Anderson#BoycottAndersonCooper #BoycottAC360 #BoycottCNN https://t.co/FReQEqQK9N pic.twitter.com/LvuZyq8i4V
— Tomi T Ahonen Stands With Ukraine (@tomiahonen) May 13, 2023
Former CNN staffer @sunny Hostin accurately accuses @cnn of journalistic malpractice, and her friend @andersoncooper of gaslighting her – and all of us.
— Keith Olbermann↙️ (@KeithOlbermann) May 12, 2023
Well done. pic.twitter.com/jkrzYa0DIt
Nepo Baby Anderson Cooper Is A Better Friend To Trump Than He Was To Kathy Griffinhttps://t.co/a2qqEA0ZQx by @RobynElyse
— Wonkette (@Wonkette) May 12, 2023