Furious Anderson Cooper calls out Mitch McConnell’s ‘backflip’ on Trump for what it is
(CNN)
A righteously furious Anderson Cooper has called out senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s criticism of ex-president Donald Trump as too little, too late.
During Trump‘s second impeachment trial, McConnell slammed the former president for inciting the deadly riots that took place on 6 January at Capitol Hill.
On his show, Cooper showed a clip of McConnell saying: “There’s no question – none – that president Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. No question about it.
“The people who stormed the building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
Despite this, McConnell voted to acquit Trump, saying “we have no power to convict and disqualify a former office holder who is now a private citizen”. Trump was acquitted for the second time as impeachment managers failed to achieve two-thirds required to convict him.
Cooper said McConnel’s “backflip” of a remark was like reliving “Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics” in 1976.
He added McConnell’s comments were too little, too late, saying: “It’s kind of like telling off the bully but only after you’re a few blocks away.”
"It's kind of like telling off the bully but only after you’re a few blocks away,” says @andersoncooper on the diatribe Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered against former Pres. Trump, just moments after he had voted to acquit. #KeepingThemHonest pic.twitter.com/z3fJItSV7h
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 16, 2021
Cooper said that McConnell, as the former majority leader under president Trump, prevented the then-president from being impeached during the first hearings.
He added McConnell’s apparent change of heart came after it was revealed that the president had an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the building was under attack.
Trump reportedly refused to call off the rioters, telling McCarthy: “Well Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Trump to be sued for conspiracy to incite deadly Capitol riot.
Bennie Thompson, a Democrat and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and the NAACP have filed the suit in a federal court accusing Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani of conspiring and inciting the deadly insurrection on the US Capitol.
According to the Associated Press, the suit was filed under a Reconstruction-era law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was designed to protect officials from interference or violence when carrying-out constitutional duties.
The lawsuit says the pair portrayed the election as stolen, despite evidence to the contrary, and that Trump “endorsed rather than discouraged” threats of violence from his angry supporters in the weeks leading up to the riot.
Five people died as a result of the Capitol Building riots: officer Brian Sicknick (42), Ashli Babbitt (35), Kevin Greeson (55), Rosanne Boyland (34) and Benjamin Philips (50).
Two police officers who responded to the insurrection later died by suicide: Jeffrey Smith (35), a DC police officer, and capitol police officer Howard Liebengood (51).
