Anderson Cooper Serves Up Sarcastic, ‘Slow Clap’ Takedown of McConnell for ‘Bare Minimum’ Acceptance of Biden Win
CNN’s Anderson Cooper opened his Tuesday night show with a withering sarcastic takedown of Republican Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who finally did the “bare minimum” by publicly acknowledging President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, five weeks after all the major news networks called the election.
In a segment not-so-subtly billed as “Slow Clap,” Cooper ran through a few of the other public figures who beat McConnell to accepting reality as well as the absurd heights — or depths — President Donald Trump has gone to to overturn the county’s democratic election.
“Good evening, Joe Biden is the president elect. The president may not want to hear it today. Maybe he’ll accept it now that two men he admires finally came out and said so: Vladimir Putin and and Geraldo Rivera,” Cooper said, starting off his broadcast with a zinger.
After playing video of McConnell speaking on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, where the top Senate Republican called Biden the “president-elect,” Cooper then reeled off a list resembling 12 Days of Election Subversion, all of which took place before McConnell’s admission.
“So, after six weeks, dozens of court cases, two Supreme Court rejections, one fascist rally, four stabbings countless threats against officials who are just doing their jobs, and more than $200 million in deceptive Trump fundraising since the election, a slow clap, everyone, for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,” Cooper said, lowering the boom.
“After all, he was not said anything that wasn’t obvious the Saturday after the election, five weeks ago, when news organizations called the race for President-Elect Biden,” Cooper added. “It’s not like he said anything to condemn what the leaders of his party has been doing to overturn the election he lost, even though it means to tear the country apart.”
Then, Cooper played a supercut of McConnell’s speeches since the election, where he took various tacks placating Trump’s anti-democratic efforts and avoiding the inconvenient political reality of Biden’s win.
“A month he has been playing the game,” a clearly frustrated Cooper said. “In the meantime, ‘the system,’ using Senator McConnell’s words, has been stretched to the breaking point, at the president’s direction to be sure, but with the Majority Leader’s acquiescence. He could have helped ease that strain, but he didn’t. Hence the slow clap today. Because as a rare dissenting Republican points out, what Mitch McConnell did today was only the bare minimum.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
