Anderson Cooper Asks Why Trump Didn’t Stop Assault on Capitol With Pence Trapped Inside: Did He Care If ‘His Own Vice President Would Be Killed?’

CNN’s Anderson Cooper revisited the events of last Wednesday and pointed to the reports that Donald Trump was too engrossed by watching on TV the insurrection he inspired to take action to stop the violence.

In his Tuesday night opening monologue, Cooper walked through the timeline and a recent Washington Post report that detailed Trump’s fascination with the attack on the Capitol, which distracted him from the deadly threat it represented to those inside.

But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas.“He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” said one close Trump adviser. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”

An aghast Cooper noted: “He could not respond to pleas for help from trapped lawmakers because he was too busy watching it all on TV. He was glued to the tube.”

At the end of last week, Mike Pence was not even speaking to Trump after the latter’s self-satisfaction at his MAGA insurrection left him ignorant of the possible danger to his

running mate, who was targeted by some of the insurrectionists for assassination. As a result, one report said their relationship had reached its “lowest point” during their time in office together.

“Watching an attack on democracy, watching people hunt the halls of Congress for his loyal vice president, Mike Pence, hoping to hang him, watching people with zip ties searching for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and others, Cooper noted. “What do you think the president was thinking while watching that and not responding to send in National Guard or addressing his followers ordering them to stop? He watching hoping it would continue? Was he hoping the man he tweeted against, his own vice president would be killed? Was he hoping Nancy Pelosi would be? Was he hoping this would somehow usher in a new Trump era in America and Ivanka could take over after that and then Donnie Jr.?”

“But if he didn’t want it to go on, then why didn’t he act to stop it?” Cooper asked, with all the ominous implications the answer to that question entails.

Watch the video above, via CNN.