MSNBC host Joy Reid on Friday panned broadcaster Anderson Cooper for his defense of a recent CNN recent town hall with former President Donald Trump. (Watch the video below.)
Reid’s remarks came amid widespread criticism of Wednesday’s televised event, which saw Trump make multiple untrue and inflammatory remarks — such as calling journalist E. Jean Carroll a “whack job” after she prevailed against him in a sexual abuse lawsuit earlier in the week.
“We begin with the continued cleanup on aisle five at CNN,” said Reid.
The host looked at supposed comments from CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht, who reportedly went to bat for the town hall after it aired. According to media reports, Licht also called a meeting with reporter Oliver Darcy after the CNN staffer suggested that the broadcast failed to provide any benefit to viewers.
Reid then analyzed comments from Cooper, saying that he had taken to “scolding his own viewers.” Critics have slammed Cooper for defending his network’s Trump-friendly town hall audience, describing it as a “sampling of about half the country.”
“Now that is what you call a straw man argument,” Reid said.
She added that voters didn’t need a “Trump pep rally” to understand who he is.
“He literally posts his garbage views on his fake Twitter every day, and every media outlet reports on it,” Reid said, apparently referring to the former president’s Truth Social platform.
“We get it — a lot of people like it and vote for it. But we don’t need CNN or ... Anderson Cooper to lecture us about how we should be forced to endure it, or that we should just get used to it. Because some of us actually know that that stuff is wrong.”
(H/T Mediaite)