On Wednesday's Anderson Cooper 360, host Cooper devoted 16 minutes of his show to trashing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen over her congressional testimony as he also brought on New York Democratic Congresswoman Kathleen Rice as a guest to join in on the bashing.
He began his commenary complaining about Nielsen not knowing the exact number of children being detained even though such a number almost certainly changes multiple times daily given the large volume of children handled by the Border Patrol. Insinuating that she is heartless for not knowing the exact number, Cooper preached:
If you were the point person in charges of kids in custody -- some trying to be reunited with parents, some sick, kids of all ages -- don't you think that's a number you would carry around with you in your head every single day?
A bit later, he suggested that the issue "doesn't keep her up at night" as a reason why she did not know the answer when asked, and then complained that it is "part of a pattern" with her.
He then complained that she "played word games" in not wanting to use the word "cages" to refer to the cage-like structures used to hold children. The CNN host did not inform viewers that children are typically only held in such places for about three days before being transferred to the Department of Human Services.
After playing a clip of Nielsen sparring with Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Hill over the semantics, Cooper then played up the treatment of children by the Trump administration as a "sharp" change in policy even though the Obama administration also had to deal with illegal immigrant children, some of whome were separated from parents or guardians who were accused of crimes. Cooper:
But to say this is simply for the children's protection does seem kind of Orwellian when you consider what subsequently was done to them in a sharp break from how past administrations -- Republican and Democratic -- did it, children were separated from their famiies and then sent to facilities all across the country...
He also did not remind viewers that the Obama administration also kept children in similar cage-like structures.
After bringing aboard Congresswoman Rice and giving her a forum to accuse Nielsen of beinng deceptive about her department's actions, Cooper asked if she believed Nelson had committed "perjury," and soon brought up again the issue of the DHS secretary not knowing the exact number of children and seemed to be at a loss for words as he finally declared that "the fact she doesn't know the number is very telling," adding that "it speaks a lot to who she is as the leader of this agency.
Congresswoman Rice concluded by declaring: "If she is that clueless about things that are happening at the border, she doesn't deserve to be in that position anyway. That would just be an example of another person in a position of power that shouldn't be there appointed by this President."
Cooper just responded in agreement, "Yeah," and wrapped up the interview.
