What Anderson Cooper said to Kellyanne Conway with a roll of his eyes he is now saying to another Donald Trump surrogate with words.
Political commentator and zealous Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord apparently crossed the CNN anchor’s “you gotta be kidding” line during an interview Friday afternoon when Cooper pressed Lord on whether it was appropriate for the POTUS to tell the Russians that he had fired FBI Director James Comey.
Lord said, “I don’t care what he says to the Russians. I mean, he’s the President of the United States. If he wants to say that, if Barack Obama wants to say whatever, if George Bush says, ‘I looked in his eyes…’”
Cooper quietly interrupted Lord’s bluster, saying, “If he took a dump on his desk, you would defend it.”
Lord said, “What?” and then burst into laughter.
“I mean, I don’t know what he would do that you would not defend,” Cooper continued. “I mean, you’re a loyal guy, I think that speaks well of you.”
Cooper later took to Twitter and apologized, writing, “I regret the crude sentence I spoke earlier and followed it up by apologizing on air. It was unprofessional. I am genuinely sorry.”
I regret the crude sentence i spoke earlier tonight and followed it up by apologizing on air. It was unprofessional. I am genuinely sorry.
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) May 20, 2017
Earlier this month, Cooper threw some shade on White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after Trump cited Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails as proof that change was needed at the top of the bureau.
During Cooper’s interview with Conway, he grilled her about the administration’s apparent fluctuation on its view of the investigation, with Cooper saying that Trump appeared to approve during the 2016 presidential campaign of the job Comey was doing.
Conway fired back with, “You’re conflating two things that don’t belong together. Thanks for the trip down memory lane — I was on your show often last fall saying we were going to win Michigan, and how we were going to do it.”
This led Cooper to roll his eyes at Conway, and the gesture was quickly shared as a GIF across social media.
Check out the video above.