CNN's Anderson Cooper rips Donald Trump Jr. for spreading 'idiotic' conspiracy theory about him

published 18 September 2018

On his show Monday night, CNN's Anderson Cooper told viewers that while he typically ignores conspiracy theorists, he wasn't going to let an "idiotic" tweet making the rounds go without explanation.

On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a photo of Cooper in waist-deep floodwaters, with the caption: "It's a shame that CNN's ratings are down 41 percent. What's worse is there's a simple solution that they refuse to accept. Stop Lying to try to make @realDonaldTrump look bad." Other Twitter users circulated the photo, falsely claiming it showed Cooper on his knees to make it look like the water was deeper. This was dumb for a variety of reasons, including that the photo was from September 2008, when Cooper was covering Hurricane Ike in Texas.

Cooper said he's covered hurricanes for 14 years, and it "really does make me sad to think that anyone would believe I would try to fake something or overly dramatize some type of disaster." He then played several clips that proved he was in deep water, and explained that he was in the thick of things to show people how dangerous it was to go out in the water, and to also stay out of the way of emergency vehicles using the roads. "The idea that I am kneeling in water to make it look deep is frankly idiotic," he said.

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As if that wasn't enough evidence, Cooper noted that a member of his crew included in the photo, veteran CNN audio tech Doug Thomas, died a year ago this month. "We miss him every day," Cooper said. Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.