Anderson Cooper delivered a careful message about the importance of reporting on President Donald Trump’s administration Thursday, telling Ellen DeGeneres that amid the coronavirus pandemic, the administration’s “war on truth” has become “life or death.”
“It’s frustrating. Look, every Washington is often confusing and administrations often shade the truth, don’t tell the truth… but this is certainly — there’s really an assault, a war on the truth going on, and we’re in a time now, in this pandemic, when the truth matters more than ever,” he said.
Cooper, who recently became a father, added, “It’s literally life or death whether you get correct information about how to stay safe, whether you get misinformation about what can help you and what can hurt you. I’ve never been more proud to be a reporter.”
He went on to outline the frustrations and challenges he’s encountered in recent years and months: “You have an administration which is — and I’m not saying this from a political vantage point — but they certainly give out tremendous misinformation and misdirection and shade the truth and lie about things and that’s a real difficulty as a reporter.”
DeGeneres agreed and lamented the “misdirection” that comes when a reporter asks what she considers a reasonable question of an administration official or the president, saying, “I’m anxious for that answer and I never really get that answer.”
Watch Cooper’s interview above.