Anderson Cooper Not Buying Ted Cruz’s Concern About ‘Divided Country’ Post-Cancun: ‘It’s a Little Rich’ After His Election Objection

Ted Cruz’s post-Cancun PR pivot is not working on Anderson Cooper.

During his Friday night opening monologue, the CNN host found the Texas senator’s newfound concern about “vitriol and hate” in our “divided country” decidedly less than convincing. Primarily because, as Cooper pointed out, just over six weeks ago Cruz had objected to the certified election of Joe Biden — even after a violent, pro-Trump mob sacked the Capitol to try to achieve the same outcome.

The CNN host noted that Cruz used a local ABC news interview after returning from his outrage-inducing trip to Cancun during his state’s widespread power and water outages.

“For damage control, he’s shifted that into cruise control,” Cooper snarked, as he teed up the video.

“We’re at a very divided place in our country, where people are screaming vitriol and hate,” Cruz lamented. “And you know what? I think that is a sad sign of where are. I don’t do that to other people. You don’t see me screaming at people I disagree with that they need to resign. …One of the things I’m most dismayed about how the last 24 hours played out is this whole thing has dominated the air waves instead of focussing on let’s solve the problems.”

“I’m sure he’s dismayed at the coverage, but not for the stated reason,” a skeptical Cooper said in response. “Because truth be told, it has not dominated the airwaves. It may feel that way to him because it’s so mortifying, but the airwaves have actually been dominated on local and national news outlets with hours and hours of reporting on the actual crisis, the one you were tired of of hearing about and dealing with and were trying to escape from, Senator Cruz.”

“As for the country being, as you say, in a divided place,” Cooper added, setting up for an open-net shot at Cruz’s hypocrisy, “coming from the guy that did all he could to perpetuate the lie that the election was stolen, the guy who voted to challenge the outcome of the legitimate election even after the Capitol was attacked?”

“It’s a little rich.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.