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Anderson Cooper spent the last 10 minutes of his show Monday night responding to a critic: the son of the president.
On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a Photo Cooper standing in deep water at the waist during a hurricane, with a caption suggesting that CNN's anchor was lying for the president to be in bad shape. Trump Jr. also seemed to suggest that the cover of Cooper's hurricane was too dramatic and aimed to improve the ratings of the network.
"I wondered if I should even answer tonight to the president's son," Cooper said "AC360" on Monday. "I know that he considers himself an outdoorsman and that he pays a lot of money for wildlife in Africa, but I'm not sure he really was a victim of this. a hurricane or a flood In recent days I have not seen him coming down to North Carolina to lend a hand, but I'm sure he was doing something important besides tweeting lies.
The photo in question was taken in Texas in 2008 during Hurricane Ike. Wearing waders and holding a microphone, Cooper stands near a submerged vegetation spot in water at waist height, as shown by a cameraman.
Because the cameraman stands in much shallower waters that go up to his ankles, Cooper has been accused of exaggerating the magnitude of the flood of memes that spread on social media over the weekend, when hurricane Florence hit the Carolinas.
"If the media lie about it, what else are they lying to?" Asked one of them, which also included a picture of a Weather Channel reporter who was fighting to stand in the midst of high winds. walks in the background. (The Weather Channel later defended the shot, claiming that the reporter was standing on the wet grass while the others were on a sidewalk.)
On Sunday morning, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted the photo without context. Monday night, it had been retweeted more than 8000 times.
[Trump Jr. mocks sexual assault claim against Kavanaugh]
During his Monday show, Cooper responded by posting Trump Jr.'s tweet as he read some of the responses that followed.
"Some guys said I was on my knees to make it sound deep, and then I kept saying that I was used to being on my knees, which I suppose to be an anti-gay reference ", did he declare. "Very classy."
Later, he added, "The idea that I'm kneeling in the water to make it look deep is downright silly."
Cooper went on to explain that the photo was taken during Hurricane Ike, not during Hurricane Florence, as anyone who saw it during the weekend could have done it. He pointed out that the cameraman on the picture was Doug Thomas, a CNN audio technician who died in September 2017. And he read several clips from the original broadcast, which shows him wandering in flood waters.
"I have not finished," he said, five minutes later. "I'm just starting."
Against the idea that he had tried to dramatize the situation, Cooper pointed out that he told viewers in 2008 that the water had actually retreated, and that CNN had also shown images of emergency vehicles driving on a road close as flooded.
"It's safe to say that I did not have to be in deep water," he said. "I could have been on the road by the film crew. But, again, I did not want to walk on the road by interfering with rescue vehicles. I also wanted to show people the depth of the water and the dangerousness of driving.
He added, "It is easy to make fun of someone who is reporting on the water. I understand that.
Why spend 10 minutes of an entire hour show debunking Trump Jr.'s tweet
"I rarely respond to online conspiracy theorists or cable news broadcasters looking to embark on a mutually beneficial beef that will improve their ratings," Cooper said at the start of his monologue.
But, he added, "I've covered hurricanes for about 14 years and it makes me really sad to think that anyone would think that I would try to simulate something or dramatize a disaster.
In conclusion, he told the audience, "Look, I do not expect the president's son to admit that he was wrong or that he was one of the presidential advisers or, frankly, anyone who retweeted those images. But I at least thought that they and you should know the truth.
Trump Jr. was not the only one to emphasize Cooper's old hurricane cover. Lynne Patton, Senior Officer, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and long time employee of the Trump family, shared the same on his Instagram account during the weekend. She added the caption, "You know it's sad when TIME is #FakeNews."
When CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski sharp On the post, Patton responded by photographing a shark in the photo. "#NeverClaimedItWasFlorence, "she wrote. "#MoreFakeNews."
This is not the first time Cooper has taken time on his show to deliver a monologue for the President or his substitutes. He has repeatedly accused the White House of "choking" the American public, recently attacking Sarah Huckabee Sanders over his claim that the media were too focused to speculate on identity. an unnamed public official having published an editorial in The New York Times.
In June 2017, after Trump tweeted that Mika Brzezinski, of MSNBC, was "bleeding a lot" during a visit to Mar-a-Lago, Cooper read aloud the President's book "Crippled America: How Make America Once Again, "choosing a passage where Trump, the candidate of the time, said he wanted to make" pomp and circumstance and feeling of fear "at the Oval Office.
In January, Cooper devoted part of his show to responding to the president's infamous remark about the "Shithole countries," telling viewers the strength and dignity he had shown during his travels in Haiti. "It's a dignity that many of them could take advantage of," he said. More recently, he accused the president last week of "deriding" the tragic number of deaths resulting from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
More from Morning Mix:
As Conservatives attack, hundreds of people sign letters supporting accuser Kavanaugh Christine Blasey Ford
Noah's Ark except it's a school bus: a truck driver saves 64 dogs and cats from the floods of Hurricane Florence
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