CNN star Anderson Cooper, the son of the famous and uber-wealthy fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, can’t help it sometimes if his white-haired privilege gets the best of him. On Wednesday, in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol rioting in the Jake Tapper hour, Cooper made an obvious conclusion that rioting at the Capitol was deplorable, and then added that the Deplorables then went to the Olive Garden to celebrate.
ANDERSON COOPER: Can I just say, we're watching these images of people, some of them leaving the Capitol grounds, wandering back, high-fiving each other smiling, quite pleased with themselves for what they have done today. And it's truly just outrageous and pathetic. Each of these people should be shamed for what they have done today. We should look at their faces, and if I was standing on that street -- look at them. They're high-fiving each other for this deplorable display of completely unpatriotic, completely against law and order, completely unconstitutional behavior.
And then Anderson Vanderbilt broke out:
It's stunning. And they're going to go back to the Olive Garden and to their Holiday Inn that they're staying at in the Garden Marriott, and they're going to have some drinks, and they're going to talk about the great day that they had in Washington, and they really did something and stand up for something, and they stood up for nothing, other than mayhem. And a man who is in the despicable waning days of a failed presidency.
Your first thought: Do the Holiday Inns and the Garden Marriotts play CNN for their patrons over breakfast? Or will they now all switch to Fox News? Does the Olive Garden advertise on CNN? Why would they now?
Rioting should never be celebrated as an accomplishment. It shouldn't be glamorized as a "rebellion" or a "revolution" or "social change." But does anyone remember Cooper disparaging rioters in Seattle or Portland, mocking them as celebrating their mayhem at oh, a vegan hookah lounge? Make up whatever insulting lifestyle stereotype you want. All rioters can be called out without mocking their imagined choice of restaurants and hotels.
(When rioting broke out last June, The New York Times reported Cooper called the president a "thug," and not the rioters. “The president seems to think dominating black people, dominating peaceful protesters, is law and order,” Mr. Cooper told his liberal viewers. “He calls them ‘thugs.’ Who is the thug here? Hiding in a bunker, hiding behind a suit. Who is the thug?” There was only a lecture at Trump, not the rioters. They were protesters who deserved answers.)
Naturally, Fox News put the Olive Garden snobbery in heavy rotation. Reporter Brian Flood at Fox reported on Tucker Carlson Tonight, former CNN digital editor Steve Krakauer cried foul. “Anderson Cooper, you know, before that, he said these rioters who were criminals should be shamed and I agree with that. And then he continues on and it’s really when the veil drops, right? It used to be this thing that we don’t really talk about. This disdain not just for Donald Trump but for Trump supporters and for those who voted for him."
He added "The Olive Garden and the Holiday Inn, I mean, it’s just so gross and honestly, it’s so self-defeating….It’s so transparent and it’s really unfortunate…The Olive Garden is delicious… there is nothing wrong with people eating at the Olive Garden."
