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CNN anchor Anderson Cooper hosted a town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week. He’s been criticized for his line of questioning, and during his primetime show Thursday evening, Charlamagne Tha God added to it.
During Anderson Cooper 360, the host defended himself from online criticism for questions he asked of the Democratic nominee Wednesday. He argued that those lobbying critical comments have a fundamental misunderstanding about what his job entails.
“I don’t look at comments about myself, but I was looking up some comments about my grief podcast, and I came across this whole inundation from people who are Harris supporters saying to me online today, like, ‘How dare you? What a betrayal that you would ask her these questions.’ And I’m like, you misunderstand what my job is,” said Cooper. “I’m not on MSNBC — no disrespect, what they do is they’re very talented — but I don’t watch it.
“I’m not interested in watching what these overpaid, blow-dried anchors think. And I include myself in that overpaid blow dried although I don’t blow dry, I am overpaid. But I’m not interested in the anchor’s opinion. I’m interested in facts and letting the viewers make up their own mind.”
Popular radio host Charlamagne Tha God, however, criticized CNN for its coverage centered around the presidential race. He took issue with the way Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump were each covered.
“I feel like I heard more on this network about ‘Is Kamala Harris Black’ than I do about, you know, Donald Trump being a fascist,” he said.
“Honestly, that’s bulls—,” replied Cooper. “I’m sorry, but to say we’re sitting around discussing ‘Is Kamala Harris Black’ —“
“That’s bulls— for you to say that y’all don’t have these conversations,” Charlamagne interjected, who then clarified that he wasn’t speaking directly about Anderson Cooper, but rather CNN as a whole.
I’m sure we have had, you know, nutty people, or people who have strongly held beliefs, who I may disagree with, who somewhere on some panel have said something,” Cooper admitted. ““I do believe it’s important to get people different viewpoints, as long as they’re willing to have a legitimate conversation. What I don’t like are surrogates who come out and just about talking points that they don’t even believe. And those are people I tried to eliminate from having ever on there again,” he concluded.
Charlamagne Tha God added his belief that no network has covered Donald Trump “honestly” since the 2016 election.
