On Monday evening, CNN’s Anderson Cooper endured the political equivalent of banging one’s head against a wall as his guests repeatedly disagreed with his framing of President Trump as a racist for questioning the intelligence of NBA star LeBron James. In a segment near the end of his 8:00 p.m. Eastern show, a frustrated Cooper repeatedly saw his narrative shot down by two black guests, neither of whom appeared willing to act as the racial pawns that the CNN host clearly wished they would be.
The trouble started almost immediately for Cooper. He turned first to Harvard professor Cornel West, inquiring what he made of “the latest example of the President criticizing a well-known African-American person on intelligence.”
West declined to respond to the Trump-related aspect of the story, insisting that the panel “keep the focus where it belong[ed],” — on the school in Cleveland that Lebron James was opening.
Cooper then gave the same question to CNN political commentator (and Trump supporter) Paris Dennard. This time, he mentioned Congresswoman Maxine Waters and CNN host Don Lemon as well — two other black public figures whose intelligence the President had derided in the past. Dennard, too, rejected the CNN host’s framing: “If [Trump] feels that something is said about him that is negative or harsh, he’ll respond to someone who’s black, he’ll respond to someone that’s a woman, he’ll respond to someone that’s white.”
Cooper grew increasingly frustrated with this defense of the President as the segment wore on. As he reached the end of his rope, he offered the only rationalization he could conjure up to explain Dennard’s stubborn refusal to call the President a racist:
It’s fascinating to me though, Paris. Look, I get that you’re a supporter of the President, and that’s your gig, and you can’t publicly break from him because then you’ll get in trouble, I guess.
The CNN host again asked his guests whether they saw “any commonality” in the President’s “go-to criticisms on African Americans.” To his chagrin, neither agreed with his premise. His face fell as West agreed with Dennard’s claim that the President had insulted far more than just African-Americans as “dumb,”:
Well, no, he has called some white sisters dumb. I think he called sister Mika on MSNBC dumb. So I think brother Paris is right. He uses ‘dumb’ across race, across gender… so yes Paris, it’s true, he’s an equal-opportunity gangster across the board.
Having sufficiently failed in his attempt to exploit the racial heritage of his guests, Cooper opted to finish the discussion there, and ended the segment after a final lengthy tangent from West.
To read a transcript of the segment, click "expand" below:
CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
08/06/2018
8:44 — 8:52 p.m. EDTANDERSON COOPER: Professor, I'm wondering what you make of this which is just the latest example of the president criticizing a well-known African American person on intelligence.
DR. CORNEL WEST: Well, I think we need to keep the focus where it belongs, because it's clear that president Trump doesn't focus on what he ought to. The focus is on first Gloria Marie James, a mother, magnificent black woman who raises a magnificent son who becomes one of the greatest athletes in the history of modern times, who then uses his greatness to serve others…
COOPER: Paris, what does it say to you that the president doesn't on what Dr. West is talking about, and what Melania was trying to focus on, and instead just goes after him, calling him dumb. Same with Don Lemon, as he’s called Maxine Waters low IQ, and others.
PARIS DENNARD: What we know about this President is he doesn't attack first, but he always responds. He responds to you if he feels something is said about him that is negative or harsh, he'll respond to someone who’s black, he'll respond to someone that’s a woman, he'll respond to someone that is white. That's just how the president was when he was a private citizen, a candidate, and now the president.
The real focus should be on the president supporting things like charter schools and school choice and parental choice, and trying to figure out ways how we can improve school systems across the country, not just in Akron, Ohio, — which I think is a positive thing. But I think and I hope that LeBron James and others will come to the table with the federal government, with the Trump administration, and try to find ways to make this solution more of a national solution, not just singly focus on Akron, Ohio, which is still a very good thing.
COOPER: But of course none of that was said by the president of the United States, Dr. West. What he did say and what he has said before about Congresswoman Waters is one of the oldest kind of racist tropes, racist attacks on African Americans in this country: questioning the intelligence of it. It was an obsession among racists, you know, for centuries.
WEST: No I think there is no doubt. We've got a whole line and lineage of racist, misogynist, homophobic things said about this president. But that's like saying the sky is blue and grass is green. The challenge is — and I was raised in such a way you don’t get in the gutter with a gangster. You respond with positive ways of accenting greatness, service, vision, struggle, courage. This cycle can go on and on and on with him saying these kinds of things. When talks about sister Maxine Waters, saying low-IQ. We know that's racist and sexist to the core, but you don't respond by somehow trying to react and simply counter what he said.
DENNARD: A quick point, just to correct Dr. West, the president, again, is not the one that is on the attack. He is always responding to things that have been said about him by Congressman [sic] Waters, by LeBron James, by others. And so the president is not sitting here going on the attack. He is responding to. So that’s an important distinction.
COOPER: But Paris, that's the response of a 12-year-old. I mean, a 12-year-old can't stop themselves if somebody says something, they say something equally mean or worse, or a 5-year-old. This is the president of the United States. I mean, he watched an interview in which LeBron James is talking about, you know, this extraordinary thing that he's doing, and speaking about it in a really beautiful way. About getting kids — you know, the power of a bicycle and a helmet for a kid, when kid and going out and being able to see other worlds and giving him a sense of freedom. You know, and his -- he took none that of away from this. All he said, he tweets, “Don Lemon made LeBron look smart, which isn't easy to do.” I mean, that’s —
DENNARD: Anderson, you can gloss over the facts of what LeBron James actually said about the president, which was not positive. I don't understand why he was even talking about president Trump in this interview about this wonderful school.
COOPER: Because we he was asked a question about him.
DENNARD: Exactly. And I don’t understand why in past tweets he has gone on the attack about president trump. So if you want to call the president on the antics of the president —
COOPER: Because President Trump said — has said —
DENNARD: — as a child, then you can say that LeBron is acting like a child, because he is saying these things that are petty, that are childish about the President of the United States. So either it goes both ways or it doesn't.
WEST: No, no, no, no, no. LeBron was telling the truth. It was Donald Trump who called the black athletes “sons of bitches.” It was Donald Trump who mistreated Stephen Curry and others who hadn’t even planned on going to the White House. So brother Paris, let's be honest, here we go again, let’s just be honest, it's Trump who is using this kind of vicious language.
DENNARD: Vicious language? So if that's vicious —
WEST: That's right.
DENNARD: — then LeBron James calling the president via Twitter “bum" would be vicious as well.
COOPER: .It’s fascinating to me though, Paris. Look, I get that you’re a supporter of the President, and that’s your gig, and you can’t publicly break from him because then you’ll get in trouble, I guess.
DENNARD: Anderson, you're wrong. I'm a grown man and I have my own opinions. I don’t work for the Trump administration, I never worked for the campaign, and they don't pay me.
COOPER: Okay, good.
DENNARD: So I have my own opinions and I’ve been a Republican since I was 16 years old. Thank you.
COOPER: Okay. So let me ask you. You see no problem with the president of the United States going to the state of Alabama and calling African American football players who are exercising their right, whether you agree with them or not, “sons of bitches,” and that they should be fired. Saying that in the state of Alabama, with all the history we know in the state of Alabama, saying that in a public forum. And then calling Maxine waters low-IQ multiple times, and then calling Don Lemon stupid, or whatever he called him, and LeBron James dumb. You don’t see — you don’t believe that there is any commonality in the criticisms, his go-to criticisms on African Americans? You don’t see any through-line to this?
DENNARD: Well, Anderson, I have said on CNN a number of times and even said privately in the west wing that I did not think it was appropriate or the right words —
COOPER: I’m saying do you see a through line in it? Do you see a common —
DENNARD: Let me finish. Saying that it was right to say “sons of bitches,” I did not think appropriate and I think that was smart. And I said that wasn't a good thing to do. I said that on CNN, and I said it privately in the West Wing. Now, I do see a commonality in all these statements that the president is doing, and the common denominator is the president is responding to people who have said things that have been negative or harsh, or that have attacked him personally, or attacked his family, or attacked his character. The president has done this to African-Americans, to white people, to white men, to white women, to members of his own cabinet.
COOPER: Professor West, do you think there's a commonality in —
WEST: No. He has called some white sisters dumb. I think he called sister Mika on MSNBC dumb. So I think brother Paris is right; he uses dumb across race, across gender. But the problem is, is that when he focuses on people of color and talks about that — uses that kind of language, we have a history that goes a long way that goes a long way, that accents the deep white supremacist overtones, even as he's calling a white male dumb or white women dumb. And I mean sexism, women have been called dumb for two thousand years. What a male supremacists lie. So that, yes, Paris, it's true, he’s an equal opportunity gangster across the board.
Our challenge is going to be — and I will tell you this, brother Paris. If somebody call you a vicious name and I thought it was wrong, I would defend you based on principle even though we don't agree on a whole lot. But we human beings. And I know there's gangster in me. There's gangster in you. There's gangster in Trump. There's gangster in Anderson. The challenge is, how do we get control of those gangster elements such that we lived a life of some decency and a slice of integrity? That's what we're talking about. It's all about accountability. Accountability. Accountability.
