At a time when the world is pushing for truce talks amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, American broadcaster Anderson Cooper surprisingly snapped at a guest discussing the plight of Gazans and asserted that “we don’t need to debate” on the conflict.
During a CNN panel discussion on Tuesday, Cooper interrupted former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner as she acknowledged some Arab-Americans’ hesitancy to support incumbent President Joe Biden. Following this, the host asserted that the viewers “don’t really need a lecture on the problem” and would like to know more about “the politics of this tonight.”
The discussion comes as Biden won the Democratic presidential primary in Michigan, despite the Gaza protest vote over his stance on the war. A substantial number of people marked their ballot as “uncommitted”, following an appeal to voters by Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), along with Arab organisers and pro-Palestine supporters, over Biden’s dismissal to call a cease-fire.
Also Read: Why ‘Uncommitted’ voters in Michigan are throwing challenge to Joe Biden?
Nina Turner vs Anderson Cooper
As the discussion progressed, CNN panel members emphasised the ‘uncommitted’ protest vote, which had reached nearly 16 percent.
Turner then went on to target Biden by reflecting on the pain of the Arab-American and Palestinian community.
“And so while this president was in the ice cream shop saying, ‘I think there’s going to be a ceasefire,’ 30,000 people have been slaughtered. People are living in famine. They can’t get medical care. So it can’t come soon enough for them, and that was really the weight that I picked up on when I was in Dearborn, [Michigan],” she said.
Copper jumped in when Turner highlighted the efforts of Rashida Tlaib and other Congress members who have been calling for a ceasefire.
“They were called abhorrent. Now fast forward to all of these bodies laying in the wake, and people who are living through this every single day,” she stated.
Responding to her, Cooper mentioned “there’s also been slaughter in Israel, so there’s a lot of pain on both sides.” Questioning the need for a “lecture on the problem”, he said, “I‘m talking about the politics of this tonight,” adding that “we don’t need to debate the issue”.
Turner then concluded her remarks, stressing that Biden and the United States “has the power to say to [Benjamin] Netanyahu: we need a permanent ceasefire.”
Also Read: Michigan Primary 2024: Joe Biden wins the Democratic primary
Anderson Cooper faces heat
As soon as the video the clip of the panel discussion went viral on social media, X user lambasted Cooper for rudely interrupting Turner when she was mentioning the plight of Gaza.
“Peaceful Palestinian antisemites need to protest Anderson Cooper. He cannot be allowed to talk about anything other than Gaza,” one user wrote.
“Remember the Anderson Cooper interview with the nurse from Gaza. He kept pushing her to say something bad about Palestinians. Asking if she was afraid of them,” another said.
“Watching CNN and my god. Anderson Cooper just cut Nina Turner off from speaking about the depth of the suffering in Gaza live on CNN, multiple times, and the rest of the panel began to pile on. Right after she mentioned 30,000 dead in Gaza. It was completely shameless,” a third user chimed in.
Hamas carried out strikes on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping 240 others. Following this, Israel launched a war on Gaza, killing around 30,000 Palestinians and displacing roughly 85% of the 2.3 million residents.
