CNN’s Anderson Cooper is facing a backlash for insulting Donald Trump’s weight during an appearance on the network on Thursday, HuffPost reported.
The comment came following the U.S. leader’s briefing the same day, which he used to claim that the election is being rigged against him as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden nears the finish line with just six more electoral votes needed to win.
“That is the president of the United States,” Cooper said. “That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over.”
While some found humor in the anchor’s comments, others believed he crossed the line.
“Please do not continue with this need to fat shame the President. He can be shamed for all kinds of other decisions, but saying that his weight is in some way evil is wrong,” one person tweeted .
“Cooper fat-shamed the president and described him of having a medical problem that a turtle, by its very nature, can not be,” another user tweeted .
During the briefing Cooper was addressing, Trump claimed that Democrats are counting “illegal votes” and suggested that he would “easily win” with only the “legal votes” counted. The head of state also claimed that fraud is taking place in states like Pennsylvania, where mail-in ballots continue to provide benefit to Biden and bring him closer to victory.
According to Voice of America , Trump’s claims of voter fraud are thus far unsubstantiated. In addition to Cooper, they drew criticism from GOP allies. Notably, Rick Santorum, a conservative political commentator for CNN, expressed concern with Trump’s comments and suggested his accusations of election cheating were dangerous for American democracy.
Elsewhere, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney — who has been vocally critical of Trump — noted that any possible irregularities would be investigated in court. He also urged Americans to have faith in the United States’ Constitution and democracy.
Trump spent months leading up to November 3 taking aim at the integrity of vote-by-mail systems and suggested that Democrats were using the process to rig the election. As The Hill previously reported, Republicans worried that the head of state’s attacks on mail-in voting would backfire and curb Republican turnout. In particular, some Republicans pushed party leaders to avoid attacking the mail-in voting system and embrace the new reality amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As The Inquisitr reported, R Street Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, argued that Republicans would benefit from expanding the absentee balloting process.
