Anderson Cooper and Charlamagne Tha God Clash on Air Over CNN’s Trump Coverage; Cooper Calls ‘Bulls—‘ Over Claim CNN Doesn’t Focus on Trump’s ‘Fascism’

Anderson Cooper and Charlamagne Tha God got into a tussle on the former’s CNN show when Charlamagne called out news networks like CNN for focusing less on Donald Trump being a fascist and more on topics related to Kamala Harris such as whether or not she’s Black, a false claim Trump has touted at several points. Cooper called “bullshit” on Charlamagne’s observation, leading to a back-and-forth between the host and his interview subject.

“It’s crazy because you still don’t have news networks having that conversation, like when somebody says, when somebody questions Kamala Harris’s Blackness or is she a DEI hire, you all will have roundtable discussions about that, asking that question. How come we’re not having a roundtable discussion asking is Donald Trump a fascist? Actually not even asking, he’s stating it,” Charlamagne asked the CNN host. “How come that is not the topic of discussion on networks like CNN every day?”

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Cooper answered by saying “I talk about this every night,” but Charlamagne wasn’t buying it and told the host: “I don’t think y’all have enough conversations about it. I feel like I heard more on this network about is Kamala Harris Black than I do about Donald Trump being a fascist.”

“Honestly, that’s bullshit,” Cooper replied. “I’m sorry. I’m a fan of yours, but to say that we‘re sitting around discussing is Kamala Harris Black…”

Charlamagne stressed that he’s seen that discussion take place, adding: “I’ve seen roundtable discussions a lot. Now that’s bullshit, Anderson.” While Anderson admitted that perhaps some “nutty” interview guests on a CNN panel talked about Harris’ Blackness, he argued that it’s the network’s job to “have a legitimate conversation” with “different viewpoints.” 

“I think no network has honest conversations about Donald Trump. Nobody’s had an honest conversation about Donald Trump since 2016,” Charlamagne fired back. “I saw last night, they were talking about, you know, the double standard that exists between Donald Trump and the vice president, but it’s always a double standard with Trump, whether it’s Hillary, whether it’s, you know, against Biden. Now, with Kamala, we talk about him being a threat to democracy, but we don’t treat him like one.”

Cooper responded, “I don’t know what you’ve been watching but, I don’t know if any Trump supporters out there or people who like him, who are tuning in to me every night to try to be validated in their opinions,” Cooper responded. “Let me just say there is nobody on the planet who has not heard and seen pretty much everything Donald Trump has said.”

Charlamagne disagreed, arguing: “I 100% believe enough people have not heard his rhetoric.” 

“You can quibble with this, but I believe in asking questions and probing people’s arguments and trying to reveal people’s arguments about what‘s true and what’s not,” Cooper later explained to his guest. “And I’m not on MSNBC for a reason. I’m not on some other network for a reason. I’m on CNN because I want to talk to Republicans, I want to talk to Democrats, and I want to learn from them. I don’t think I have the answers. I’m willing to change my mind. People can convince me of stuff all the time. I don’t even know why I’m talking about myself.”

Earlier in the interview, Charlamagne encouraged Harris to continue calling Trump and fascist while on the campaign trail and encouraged Americans to continue looking at Donald Trump’s fascist rhetoric, whether it’s Trump wanting to put people into camps or touting mass deportation of talking about “terminating the Constitution to overthrow the results of an election.”

While Charlamagne was not fully backing the Democratic party when Joe Biden was on the ticket for president, he has since thrown his weight behind the party in support of Kamala Harris’ campaign.