Anderson Cooper on Monday night reacted to a jawdropping and unconscionable series of events in real time as President Donald Trump teargassed peaceful protesters outside the White House so he could cross the street for a photo op in front of a church. The photo op was meant to show Americans that he was not a coward hiding in a bunker, a label many gave him after he was whisked away to the White House bunker in previous nights because of unrest near the residency.
“Oh my God,” exclaimed Anderson as reporter Kaitlan Collins revealed the reason for the teargassing. “Wow. We are in trouble. He was hiding in a bunker and embarrassed that people know that. So what does he have to do? He has to stick police on peaceful protesters so he can make a big show of being the little big man walking to a closed down church.”
“He always talks about how the world is laughing at the governors right now, [but] the only person the world is laughing at is the President of the United States,” Anderson continued. “And this event, if it wasn't so dangerous and disgusting, it would be funny because it's just so low rent and sad.”
“I planned to come tonight and trying to be as calm and reasonable and straightforward — and do this hour of news,” he added. “And this happened. I can't believe this is what we have. This is the President we have. They wanted a disrupter? Well, yeah. That's what disruption is.”
Anderson later ripped the president in a lengthy monologue.
“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,” said Anderson.
“So, a lot to unpack there, the president threatening to use unprecedented military force on US soil while offering a preview of it on the streets of Washington. 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.”
“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,” Anderson explained. “A black man killed with four officers holding him down, a knee to the neck …. that's not law and order. That's murder. … 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 wartime president to say something. And this is what he says. And that is what he does.”
Anderson went on to talk about the countries he's seen fall apart as a reporter: “We can't let that happen here.”
“Of course violence is no answer, but people protesting deserve answers. And they haven't gotten them no matter how many black men had been murdered, lynched in prison, 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.”
