‘You Guys Are Feeling the Heat!’: Anderson Cooper, Kellyanne Conway Battle Over CNN Intel Report
Kellyanne Conway and Anderson Cooper got into a massive heated back-and-forth tonight over CNN’s report last night on Trump being briefed about supposed “compromising” information against him.
Cooper expressed his frustration that Sean Spicer appeared to be conflating CNN’s report with BuzzFeed’s, which included a dossier on that alleged Russian disinformation, and he confronted Conway about that. Conway repeatedly insisted to Cooper that CNN’s “screaming headline” was wrong and that they linked to the BuzzFeed report online.
While the interview was going on, Jim Sciutto tweeted this:
in fact, @KellyannePolls, this links to @DylanByers story on the controversy: https://t.co/NufJL9qfHA Not to buzzfeed story on dossier https://t.co/W4d5SFRowW
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 12, 2017
Fact @KellyannePolls you said repeatedly on our air we LINKED to the buzzfeed story, which we did not, not that a story mentioned its name https://t.co/Q0JrqsiUwN
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 12, 2017
Cooper seemed utterly bewildered at Conway scolding CNN for its report, and when she said “I know CNN is feeling the heat today,” Cooper shot back, “I think you guys are feeling the heat.”
Cooper defended CNN’s reporting and asked Conway how she can dismiss it as inaccurate when she doesn’t know for certain that it’s false. He said, “CNN is not BuzzFeed, I just wish you guys would acknowledge [it].”
At one point Conway told him that “CNN and BuzzFeed have a lot in common” and criticized both for not seeing Trump’s win coming. Cooper shot back, “You can’t stick to what we’re talking about now.”
Conway even told Cooper that she doesn’t expect CNN to hold anyone accountable if it turns out the story is wrong, with her saying they have “no evidence of it other than unnamed sources.”
Cooper pointed to other outlets that have backed up CNN’s reporting and said it’s “unfair and frankly disingenuous” to lump in CNN’s report with BuzzFeed’s.
He pointed to how Fox’s Shep Smith stood up for CNN. Conway asked if anyone else at Fox did and Cooper said, “I haven’t talked to Sean Hannity today, I’m sure you guys have a couple times.”
Watch the full interview above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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