Melania Trump's anti-bullying speech raised an obvious question, and Anderson Cooper asked it

Anderson Cooper and Kellyanne Conway spar over Donald Trump, bully
(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

Melania Trump gave her first solo campaign speech for husband Donald Trump on Thursday, telling a crowd in the Philadelphia suburbs that if Trump is elected on Tuesday, her mission as first lady would be to combat the scourge of cyberbullying. "We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other," especially online, she said, criticizing the "bad side" of social media. "Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers," she said, noting that kids are often hurt when they are "made to feel less in looks or intelligence."

On CNN Thursday night, Anderson Cooper said he didn't "know of anybody who would disagree with that," then asked Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway the obvious question: "The reaction from a number of people, mostly her critics, is that her husband is part of the problem — we all know he's made fun of people's looks, of people's intelligence.... If it's not okay for kids to do this, why is it okay for adults, for Donald Trump?" "Well, it's really not okay for anyone to do it with malicious intent," Conway said, pointing out to "the political class" that most of what's on Twitter isn't about politics.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.