Anderson Cooper left many 60 Minutes viewers frustrated Sunday night after he asked Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) if she believes President Donald Trump is a racist.
The exchange went as follows:
Cooper: "You don't talk about President Trump very much. Why?"
AOC: "No, because I think he's a symptom of a problem."
Cooper: "What do you mean?"
AOC: "The president certainly didn't invent racism. But he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and given a platform to those things."
Cooper: "Do you believe President Trump is a racist?"
AOC: "Yeah, yeah. No question."
Cooper's questionable response:
"How can you say that?"
To which Ocasio-Cortez replied:
"When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy. When you look at the way he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking refuge on our borders... it's night and day."
Watch below:
Twitter pummeled Cooper for his apparent obliviousness to Trump's evident racial animus.
"There is no debate," Matt McDermott said.
He was not alone.
From the Central Park Five to birtherism, to chiding Mexicans as rapists and criminals during his presidential campaign kickoff speech, not to mention his history of refusing to rent apartments to black people, Trump's wake of racist behavior is no secret.
The White House responded by calling Ocasio-Cortez's comments "sheer ignorance" because Trump recently signed a criminal justice reform bill into law last month which eases mandatory minimum sentences and attempts to reduce recidivism in the federal prison system.
It did not play well.
On the other hand, Ocasio-Cortez was praised for standing her ground and speaking the truth.
The Congresswoman did not hold back, and people love her for it.
Trump is in for a long two years.
