Metro Weekly
Home / News + Politics / Nation / Twitter users launch homophobic attacks on Anderson Cooper post-debate

Twitter users launch homophobic attacks on Anderson Cooper post-debate

First gay man to moderate a presidential debate is barraged by insulting, derogatory tweets

By on October 11, 2016

Anderson Cooper - Photo: Tulane Public Relations, via Wikimedia.
Anderson Cooper – Photo: Tulane Public Relations, via Wikimedia.

It didn’t take long after Sunday’s debate for the homophobic tweets to start. Their target? CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who became the first openly gay person to moderate a presidential debate.

Cooper and co-moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC weren’t afraid to fact check and ask tough questions, including follow-ups, which some debate viewers saw as unfair.

They expressed their upset via Twitter, primarily attacking Cooper with references to his sexuality, as first reported by The Daily Dot.

The vast majority appeared to favor Trump, with some users’ handles including the word “deplorable,” a reference to earlier comments by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton disparaging Trump supporters.

Many of these same users later insisted that their tweets were jokes, and used the outcry against them as evidence that the political Left and those who favor political correctness are thin-skinned. 

Others accused Cooper of being biased in favor of Clinton, echoing a charge made prior to the debate by Trump himself. Upon hearing that Cooper had been selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates as a co-host, Trump alleged that Cooper would be “very biased” against him.

He told The Washington Post‘s Robert Costa: “I don’t think Anderson Cooper should be a moderator, because Anderson Cooper works for CNN and over the last couple of days, I’ve seen how Anderson Cooper behaves…. I don’t think he can be fair.”

Still others tried to attack Cooper on a more personal level:

Thankfully, not everyone was abusing Cooper. Some defended his moderating, while others just wanted to give him some Twitter love.

More from Metro Weekly:

Related Items