Donald Trump tried to lie about Anderson Cooper. But Cooper brought the receipts.

Out CNN host fired back at Donald Trump for lying about him. Trump claimed Cooper coached E. Jean Carroll – the woman Trump sexually assaulted in the 1990s in a department store – during a commercial break in an interview. The problem, though, is that while there was a commercial break on air, Cooper and Carroll didn’t actually wait through it while having their pre-recorded interview.

“Then there was an Anderson Cooper interview where she said essentially, no, he didn’t rape me… In the Anderson Cooper tape, it’s an interview of [Carroll] and Cooper says something to the effect, ‘Did he rape you? Did he rape you?’… She gave a very good answer for me, but a bad answer for CNN for Anderson and he said, we’re going to a commercial break right now. Then she came back from commercial break and she was much more hostile,” Trump said during a recent press conference at Trump Tower.

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The out lawyer who got an $83 million judgement against Trump said a new lawsuit is “on the table.”

He continued, “But this man wouldn’t let us use the tape or the proper questions having to do with the tape. Wouldn’t let us, the judge, Judge Kaplan wouldn’t let it be used. We wanted to get the outtakes. In other words, what did Anderson Cooper talk to her about during that intermission for a commercial that he called for immediately?”

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Cooper said Trump made a similar claim in the deposition for his trial in which Carroll alleged he had sexually assaulted her. In the deposition transcript from October 19, 2022, Trump said, “If you watch Anderson Cooper’s interview with her where she was promoting a really crummy book, you will see that it is a complete scam. She changed her story from beginning to end after the commercial break to suit the purposes of CNN and Andy Cooper.” Trump confirmed in the trial that this was accurate.

Cooper said how he doesn’t normally respond when Trump makes a claim about him, referencing a Truth Social post from May in which Trump refers to Cooper as “Alison Cooper,” likely a homophobic joke since Cooper is a gay man. Cooper even acknowledges this as a “third-grade gay taunt.”

He then responded to Trump’s conspiratorial claim by showing a full clip of both the interview and what happened behind the scenes.

“So the former president seems to be suggesting that something we discussed, or that I discussed with E. Jean Carroll during a four-minute-long commercial break that you would have been watching at home, made Ms. Carroll change her tone toward him,” Cooper says. “The problem with this conspiracy theory is that this interview was actually pre-recorded, and we had to pre-record a toss to a commercial break, and then welcome viewers back after a commercial break so that the entire two parts of the interview would fit into my show that night…  Because it’s pre-recorded, you don’t have to sit there during a commercial break. You just take a few seconds. You make sure the control room is still recording. You welcome viewers back as if you’ve just come out of a commercial break, and you continue with the interview.”

“And that’s exactly what I do with Jean Carroll, and I know this because we have the tape… And if you don’t believe me, here’s the raw, unedited video of what was actually being recorded, and you will hear exactly what I said in the few seconds it took me to resume the interview.”

Cooper then brought up the unedited video in which he takes a few moments to pause after laughing at a comment Carroll made to check on the producer and crew behind the scenes. Just a few seconds after that, he calls back to the interview, continuing on with the segment as normal. During the break, Cooper did not talk to Carroll.

“I normally don't respond when Trump says something about me. I mean, what’s the point…But this time is different because it's demonstrably false.”

-Anderson Cooper obliterated Trump on live TV. A must-watch! pic.twitter.com/wLU22GmmO6

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 7, 2024

In this 2022 deposition, Trump claimed that Carroll said she wasn’t raped and that she “loved” being sexually assaulted. However, she actually said that she hesitated to use the word “rape” because it has “too many sexual connotations” and is a “fantasy” for some people.

“So, sir, I just want to confirm: It’s your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you,” asked Carroll’s attorney, out lawyer Roberta Kaplan, during Trump’s deposition.

Trump responded, “Well, based on her interview with Anderson Cooper, I believe that’s what took place.”

The Carroll trial came to a close last year when a jury found Trump guilty of sexual assault and defamation, ordering him to pay $5 million in damages. A separate suit found him guilty of defamation, and he had to pay $83.3 million to her. Trump is currently appealing the decision, with the judges that will oversee his trial having been appointed by former President Barack Obama and current President Joe Biden.

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