The level of composure and dedication to the craft of journalism required not to burst out laughing (ahem, Don Lemon) or even react to the House speaker calling the president obese is hard to conceive. | Source: CNN/YouTube
The world is tweeting about #PresidentPlump and #TrumpMorbidlyObese following Nancy Pelosi’s bombastic comments on CNN. But the real story of the infamous “morbidly obese” segment is Anderson Cooper’s legendary reaction.
Pelosi joined Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN Monday to discuss President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is taking the drug hydroxychloroquine.
The interview gave us quite the gem:
No, I’m not talking about the House speaker’s assertion that the president of the United States is “morbidly obese,” although this feels like something The Onion made up.
(A CNN fact-check found that the quip was mostly false.)
I’m talking about Anderson Cooper’s hilariously expressionless response. The man crack a smile. He didn’t even smirk!
There’s no way he could have seen this coming. One moment Pelosi is worried that the president is taking a drug that has not been approved by scientists as a treatment for coronavirus, and the next, she’s engaging in some seriously next-level trolling.
Cooper responds with a hushed moment – I assume to tell himself what he just heard was, in fact, his imagination – then seamlessly pivots into a question about the firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick.
It was hilarious, but only because it was so freaking professional.
The level of composure and dedication to the craft of journalism required not to burst out laughing (ahem, Don Lemon) or even react to the House speaker calling the president obese is hard to conceive.
If anyone could have gotten away with a smirk or comment or chuckle, it’s Cooper. He is a top personality on the very network that Trump has essentially labeled as public enemy No. 1 .
Cooper’s brand is too big to sink due to an off-handed comment about a president with which his company already wages war.
But he didn’t take the bait.
He paused, held his chiseled jaw in place, and moved on—what a stud.