A fed-up Anderson Cooper let loose Monday night on self-proclaimed “law and order” President Donald Trump, characterizing him instead as a “thug.”
“The president seems to think dominating Black people, dominating peaceful protesters, is law and order. It’s not,” Cooper said on CNN.
“He calls them thugs? Who is the thug here? Hiding in a bunker? Hiding behind a suit? Who is the thug?” he snapped.
Cooper noted that the president in a White House statement Monday threatening violence against anti-racist protesters “claimed a power he doesn’t really have” — he “can’t send the military into every state,” he said. “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 … that’s not law and order; that’s murder,” Cooper said.
He added: “I’ve seen societies fall apart as a reporter …. I’ve seen countries ripped apart by hate and misinformation, and political demagogues and racism. We can’t let that happen here.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins told Cooper that peaceful protesters were attacked with tear gas and batons Monday so the president could look like a tough leader as he strolled to a nearby church to hold aloft a Bible for a photo-op (which infuriated church leaders). Trump orchestrated the scene because he was “upset” by media coverage that he had been rushed to a bunker in the White House for safety Friday night during protests, sources told Collins.
“Oh, my God,” Cooper responded.
