Culture

Anderson Cooper Can’t Hide His Amusement As Kellyanne Conway Spins Trump’s ‘Fake News’ Claim About CNN

Anderson Cooper is not a fan of Kellyanne Conway’s sunshiney spin habits. That much was obvious a few days before the election when he was probably thinking his fresh hell was almost over, and he asked her, “Don’t facts matter?” In the above clip, Cooper catches a perpetual grin (after 1:25) and nearly laughs due to Conway’s strenuous efforts to bash CNN (while visiting with CNN) and gets real: “What you think, and what is true are not necessarily the same thing.”

Naturally, the two mortal enemies were discussing the “golden showers” file released by Buzzfeed. Prior to the Internet exploding over those lurid details, CNN reported on the two-page addendum that only revealed how Russia had some “compromising” information against Trump.

The important distinction, of course, is that CNN chose not to publish the dossier because it was full of unverified claims. Trump either missed this fine point or ignored it while lashing out Jim Acosta and trashing CNN as “fake news.” Cooper soon discovered that Conway believed that CNN was just as culpable as Buzzfeed, and things grew ridiculous when Cooper asked Conway to tell him what was untrue about CNN’s report. She tried to change the subject, so he said, “You like to pivot,” which really set Conway off:

“You can use words like pivot, distract, red herring all you want. The fact is that the media have a 16% approval rating for a reason. It’s been earned. And it’s crap like this that really undergirds why Donald Trump won. In fact, you’re doing him a favor again … this election was a rejection [unintelligible] of everybody thinks they know better than people! This is very concerning.”

Cooper understands Trump’s anger at Buzzfeed, but he surmised that Conway’s being political and “trying to link all of the reporters together, but it seems just unfair and frankly disingenuous.” Conway then claimed few people came to CNN’s defense, and Cooper countered by pointing out how Shepard Smith defended CNN while admonishing Trump for “belittling” a journalist. To which Conway sarcastically responded, “That’s a cherry!”

At about 3:35, Cooper’s eyes nearly rolled out of his head when Conway suggested that outlets like CNN and New York Times were actually to blame for what Buzzfeed did because they reported the addendum beforehand. She then asserted that Buzzfeed would have never done this to a Democrat. Cooper had enough and responded, “You know, the last time I read Buzzfeed, I saw a headline that said like ‘Ten Top Sex Toys That Was Gonna Improve Your Sex Life. I don’t read Buzzfeed!” Hello, 2017.

Here’s the segment that came before the top video, and mannnn, Conway’s denial is stronger than usual tonight.