Having long since decided to abandon being a journalist and instead offer condescending, partisan, vile commentaries against President Trump and others he doesn’t like, CNN’s AC360 host Anderson Cooper joined his fellow CNN performance artists Monday in throwing Olbermann-like tantrums.
In light of the President giving another address to the nation and walking over to the damaged St. John’s Episcopal Church, Cooper and guests lashed out at Trump as a “little big man,” “thug,” and “wannabe dictator” elected by a pathetic, despicable American public who wanted to cause “disruption” they must now live with.
Cooper’s opening minute were nothing short of a juvenile diatribe (click “expand”):
We are witnessing a failure of presidential leadership at a time when this country, when we, the people need it more than ever perhaps in our lifetime. Tonight, with flashbang grenades going off and tear gas in the air, the President of the United States, a wannabe wartime President had what he hoped was his MacArthur moment, his Patton promise, calling himself our law and order President. He said, he’ll send active duty military troops into American cities and states to dominate, his words, dominate demonstrators in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd a week ago.
What happened in this past hour would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous and so destructive. The President spoke from the Rose Garden and even as he declared himself, “the ally of peaceful protesters,” troops, Secret Service members and members of police were moving on what until moments before had been a peaceful crowd at Lafayette Park across from the White House. You're seeing what happened right there. That had been a peaceful crowd. Throughout his brief remarks, forces of what he called law and order were creating chaos unlike anything seen in Washington in decades.
As we later found out, the use of tear gas was a complete lie.
After mocking the trip across the street as filled with “scatterbrained” Cabinet officials and White House aides, Cooper insisted that the President’s lying about wanting “law and order” in America because he’s racist and enjoys seeing African-Americans beaten.
His evidence? Well, Cooper claimed that Trump “seems to think that dominating black people, dominating peaceful protesters is law and order.”
Therefore, Cooper asserted that he’s a “thug” and “wannabe wartime President” overseeing the “fall” of society, dead Americans lying in streets, and forcing upon the country “hate and misinformation and lies and political demagogues and racism.”
Talk about a mouth full.
Correspondent Alex Marquardt agreed that Trump was ensuring that Washington looked more like Egypt, Turkey, or some flare-up “between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Cooper replied that Trump was merely emulating his “favorite dictator” in Egypt’s el-Sissi.
Moments after he shouted at President Trump a quesiton of America was “still a democracy,” chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta declared Trump as “a wannabe dictator” “operating outside the bounds of U.S. law and the tradition of what we know to be our democracy.”
For his part in that exchange, Cooper mocked Trump aides as an “all-white coterie,” but on a more sinister level, he dismissed the President wanting to defend our Second Amendment rights because it’s not “civil rights.”
White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins was next and was interrupted by another Cooper meltdown that would have been made better if he had a fainting couch. Collins had just explained that Trump reportedly wanted to visit the church after having been forced Friday night into the White House bunker when Cooper lost it.
Not only did he lose it, he hurled venom at people who disagreed with Colin Kaepernick and voted for Trump in 2016 instead of Hillary Clinton (click “expand,” emphasis mine):
Oh, my God. Wow. We are in — we are in trouble. This country is being led by a man — of course he did. He — he — he was taken to a bunker and, you know, he's hiding in a bunker and he is embarrassed that people know that. So, what does he have to do? He has to sic police on peaceful protesters so he can make a big show of being, you know, the little big man walking to a closed-down church and then, you know, he always talks about the world laughing, that the world are laughing at the governors right now. They're not laughing at the governors. They're standing in horror over what is happening. The only people that the world is laughing at is the President of the United States and this event. As I said, if it wasn't so dangerous and disgusting, it would be funny because it is so low rent and just sad. I mean, I plan to come tonight, I am trying to be as calm and reasonable as, you know, and straightforward and doing this hour of news, and this happened. And I just can't believe this is what we have. This is the United States of America. This is the President we have that. They wanted a disrupter. Well, yeah, that's what a disrupter — that's what disruption is.
(....)
Yes, they're all for peaceful protests, except never the actual peaceful protest that's happening. Colin Kaepernick, people taking a knee during a sporting event. No, no, no, that's completely inappropriate. That's not the right kind of peaceful protest. A peaceful protest across from the White House, Lafayette Park, it’s a federal land. That's why they can use federal forces. No, that's not appropriate. I mean, I'm mystified by all of these people who say they're for peaceful protests. They don't — I'm not sure what a peaceful protest is supposed to look like given that everyone that I've seen so far hasn't ended up so well for those who are being peaceful and I am not — I mean, violence is not the answer.
Let there be no mistake: Cooper and CNN have no interest in unifying the country.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from June 1, click “expand.”
CNN’s AC360
June 1, 2020
8:00 p.m. EasternANDERSON COOPER: We are witnessing a failure of presidential leadership at a time when this country, when we, the people need it more than ever perhaps in our lifetime. Tonight, with flashbang grenades going off and teargas in the air, the President of the United States, a wannabe wartime President had what he hoped was his MacArthur moment, his Patton promise, calling himself our law and order President. He said, he’ll send active duty military troops into American cities and states to dominate, his words, dominate demonstrators in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd a week ago. What happened in this past hour would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous and so destructive. The President spoke from the Rose Garden and even as he declared himself, “the ally of peaceful protesters,” troops, Secret Service members and members of police were moving on what until moments before had been a peaceful crowd at Lafayette Park across from the White House. You're seeing what happened right there. That had been a peaceful crowd. Throughout his brief remarks, forces of what he called law and order were creating chaos unlike anything seen in Washington in decades. As you listen to what the President said, we're going to show you also what was happening at the exact same moment just a couple hundred yards away.
[TRUMP SPEECH]
COOPER: So, a lot to unpack there. The President threatening to use unprecedented military force on U.S. soil while offering a preview of it on the streets of Washington. Now, you might wonder why did the police — why were they ordered to move on protesters at that moment? Obviously, the President wanted a photo-op and in a moment right after he spoke, we learned exactly what that photo-op would be. The President wanted peaceful protesters, the kind he said he just supports. He wanted them out of the way for his photo-op. It was simultaneously outrageous and dangerous. That's the President starting his very short walk to a nearby church. With him were Ivanka Trump, who you'll probably see at one moment. She is in high heels clutching a white purse. The Defense Secretary was there. Mark Meadows, the new Chief of Staff — all of them in eye very kind of scattered brain way walking to a nearby church foray photo-op.
And then I want to show you what actually happened once the President got to the church. Even if it meant teargassing peaceful protesters, hitting them with flashbangs, pepper spray and rubber bullets, somebody handed the President that Bible, and then he stood there and that was it. That was the photo-op. The church itself is shut down. We're a great country. That's my thought. That was his photo-op. And then really awkwardly, he asked the Attorney General, the Defense Secretary, and really anybody else he could kind of get to come in to, Kayleigh McEnany was dragged into this — into this photo-op to stand in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, not to pray, not to confess, certainly. We know the President doesn't do that. You know, he wanted to stand outside, hold up the Bible and have photos taken of himself with his Cabinet members. It was surreal. A photo-op at the church that he rarely attends. His daughter and son-in-law also on hand. Let me just say something about what the President has just shown us. The President of law and order as he now calls himself, which is how he pronounced himself, and then he claimed a power he doesn't really have. He can't send the military into every state. That's not law and order.
What the President doesn't seem to know or care is that the vast majority of those protesting, they, too, are calling for law and order. A black man killed with four officers holding him down, a knee to the neck for more than eight minutes, nearly three minutes of which he was no longer conscious for, that's not law and order. That's murder. Stopping and frisking a young black man simply because he is a young black man, that's not law and order. The killing of George Floyd, Eric Garner, the torture of Abner Louima, that's not law and order. The President seems to think that dominating black people, dominating peaceful protesters is law and order. It's not. He calls them thugs. Who is the thug here? Hiding in a bunker? Hiding behind a suit? Who is the thug? People have waited for days for this wannabe war-time President to say something and this is what he says, and that is what he does. I've seen societies fall apart as a reporter. I've seen people dying in the streets while protesting. I've seen countries ripped apart by hate and misinformation and lies and political demagogues and racism. We can't let that happen here. Of course, violence is no answer, but people protesting deserves answers, and they haven't gotten them. No matter how many black men have been murdered, lynched, imprisoned, mistreated, redlined, blackballed from jobs — we all know it. People protesting in the streets, they know it and they're tired of it and we should be, too. There's a curfew in New York tonight at 11:00 p.m., and we remember another curfew, August 1943. That was the last time there was a curfew like this in the city and you know what that curfew was caused by? 1943, a white police officer shooting a black soldier. The years change, the decades go by, and the sad truth remains.
(....)
8:09 p.m. Eastern
ALEX MARQUARDT: So some incredibly disturbing scenes playing out here, Anderson tonight. It is the kind of thing you noted in your remarks earlier, it's the kind of thing that I have also seen in places like Turkey, in places like Egypt, between Israelis and Palestinian. These are not countries we should want to be compared to. It was an understatement to say that — to compare the President's remarks that I was listening to in my ear with the scenes that were unfolding in front of me, to say that that was surreal is certainly an understatement — Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, well, el-Sisi is the President's favorite dictator. Apparently, that's what the President said to el-Sisi. Alex Marquardt, thanks very much. CNN's Jim Acosta watched this from the Rose Garden. He joins us now. Jim, have you seen anything like this?
JIM ACOSTA: No, Anderson. It was an extraordinary moment, and you know, we were standing there in the Rose Garden waiting for the President to start speaking and you could hear the explosions coming from this police and military action that was taking place on the streets of the Nation's Capital to clear out these protesters from Lafayette Park so the President could have this photo-op.
(....)
8:11 p.m. Eastern
ACOSTA: It's just extraordinary what was done here and just to echo what Alex Marquardt was saying, we've had this discussion over the last couple of hours of the President potentially using the Insurrection Act of 1807 to help quell a domestic disturbance, that's not what occurred here.
COOPER: Jim, the thing also —
ACOSTA: They were used to create a photo opportunity for the President so he can hold up a Bible.
COOPER: — yeah, and Jim, and this photo opportunity — Jim, this photo opportunity, he didn't know what to do once he got there. This thing was so badly thought out. They just —
ACOSTA: — yeah. This was ham-handed. No question about it.
COOPER: — I mean —
ACOSTA: This was bad reality television. This wasn't even good reality television and the sad state of affairs that we are dealing with tonight in the nation's capital, Anderson, is that we have now witnessed the President of the United States operating outside the bounds of U.S. law and the tradition of what we know to be our democracy, which is the United States government does not use the military against civilians in this country unless there is a damn good reason. This just wasn't a damn good reason. All we ended up with was the President of the United States looking like a wannabe dictator —
COOPER: Right.
ACOSTA: — so he could walk over to a church and pretend to be concerned about the church. It's just a sad and unbelievable thing.
COOPER: It's like in some small country that's taken over by some low- level lieutenant — you know, low-level colonel who gets on the airwaves and declares himself the law and order President, and then you know, has a big show of a photo op and — but there’s no there, there because the church is closed, and he is just standing there with the Bible. What does the Defense Secretary — what’s the — what is Barr doing? What is the — the Attorney General stan — doing walking over with this? Why is there a uniformed military person walking behind the President going over there, like it's this mob?
ACOSTA: It's a very good question, Anderson and the Defense Secretary Mark Esper was talking about this earlier today and talking about these protests as battle spaces, as if the people in these areas protesting are enemy targets. They're not. They are American citizens and on top of that, you asked about the Attorney General. I snapped a picture of the President walking out with Jared and Ivanka and all of these officials and Bill Barr, the U.S. Attorney General had a big smile on his face.
COOPER: Of course.
ACOSTA: Why is he smiling after they cleared a park of protesters out there with teargas?
COOPER: Yeah, yeah.
ACOSTA: It's just — it's hard to wrap your head around, but we are descending into something that is not the United States of America tonight. There is just no other way to put it.
COOPER: Also, at a time when you're trying to kind of reach out to all the people in America, for the President to do this, you know, and his all-white coterie hanging outside a closed-down church. I don't know what message he thinks he’s sending, but it's clear who he thinks he is sending it to and what voters he thinks he is sending it to, which is, you know, I mean, it seems that this is based on, you know, he talked about the Second Amendment. That's the — that’s the right he is talking about protecting,
ACOSTA: Right.
COOPER: — as opposed to talking about protecting people's civil rights, about protecting the rights of everyday Americans, you know, to not be killed or not be suspected of a crime just because of the color of their skin.
ACOSTA: The right of George Floyd not to be killed by the police, absolutely, no question about it. I think, Anderson, one of the things that has to be remembered in all of this is that President Trump, Donald Trump did not do this by himself tonight. There were other White House officials, military officials, federal employees paid for with our tax dollars and our tax dollars were used to teargas fellow Americans. That's what happened tonight in the nation’s capital and the entire world was watching.
(....)
8:15 p.m. Eastern
KAITLAN COLLINS: And now, sources are telling my colleague Kevin Liptak, that in part, the reason the President made the trip outside the gates of the White House, a really rare trip where you do not often see the President walk out of the front door of the White House, walk across Lafayette Square and come over here to St. John's was driven in part, that he was upset by coverage of the fact that he had been rushed to the underground bunker on Friday night during the protest that you saw breaking out here —
COOPER: Oh, my God. Wow.
COLLINS: — in front of the White House. That is what sources are saying, Anderson, that was in part —
COOPER: We are in —
COLLINS: — of the decision.
COOPER: — we are in trouble. This country is being led by a man —
COLLINS: He wanted to be seen outside the gates.
COOPER: — of course he did. He — he — he was taken to a bunker and, you know, he's hiding in a bunker and he is embarrassed that people know that. So, what does he have to do? He has to sic police on peaceful protesters so he can make a big show of being, you know, the little big man walking to a closed-down church and then, you know, he always talks about the world laughing, that the world are laughing at the governors right now. They're not laughing at the governors. They're standing in horror over what is happening. The only people that the world is laughing at is the President of the United States and this event. As I said, if it wasn't so dangerous and disgusting, it would be funny because it is so low rent and just sad. I mean, I plan to come tonight, I am trying to be as calm and reasonable as, you know, and straightforward and doing this hour of news, and this happened. And I just can't believe this is what we have. This is the United States of America. This is the President we have that. They wanted a disrupter. Well, yeah, that's what a disrupter — that's what disruption is.
(....)
8:17 p.m. Eastern
COOPER: Yes, they're all for peaceful protests, except never the actual peaceful protest that's happening. Colin Kaepernick, people taking a knee during a sporting event. No, no, no, that's completely inappropriate. That's not the right kind of peaceful protest. A peaceful protest across from the White House, Lafayette Park, it’s a federal land. That's why they can use federal forces. No, that's not appropriate. I mean, I'm mystified by all of these people who say they're for peaceful protests. They don't — I'm not sure what a peaceful protest is supposed to look like given that everyone that I've seen so far hasn't ended up so well for those who are being peaceful and I am not — I mean, violence is not the answer.
COLLINS: And Anderson, we should note — we should —
COOPER: Go ahead. Sorry.
COLLINS: — we should note who was missing from this photo opportunity that the President did where he came out here, he posed with a Bible. You saw the Attorney General. You saw the National Security Adviser. You saw the Defense Secretary. The Vice President Mike Pence was not here. He did not make this trip with the President, neither did the First Lady, Melania Trump. Really notable not to see either of those figures come with the President over here to this church where the basement caught on fire last night. Of course, a very famous presidential church.
COOPER: I also noticed — right, I noticed Ivanka Trump was no fool and she didn't get sucked into lining up with the President unless that happened when the cameras had moved or something, but, from what I saw, it was only Kayleigh McEnany who was the only woman who got dragged into that. The rest was just the Defense Secretary. I mean, again, what a day.
