Anderson Cooper claims he was hacked after tweet calling Trump “pathetic loser”
Cooper and CNN claim hacking, after tweet aimed at Trump's reaction to Roy Moore's loss
CNN host Anderson Cooper has claimed his Twitter count was hacked, after a tweet was sent to Donald Trump calling him “a pathetic loser.”
Trump tweeted that the “deck was stacked” against Roy Moore in the Alabama special election — which Moore lost — and claimed he said that Moore would “not be able to win the General Election.”
The President previously threw his support behind Moore, who has a history of homophobia, transphobia and racism and whose campaign was dogged by accusations of child molestation, urging Alabama voters to help maintain the Republican Party’s narrow majority in the Senate.
Cooper’s account responded to Trump’s claim he was “right” that Moore wouldn’t win, saying, “Oh Really? You endorsed him you tool! Pathetic loser.”
The tweet has since been deleted, with CNN Communications asserting that someone accessed Cooper’s account.
This morning someone gained access to the handle @andersoncooper and replied to POTUS. We're working with Twitter to secure the account.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 13, 2017
Cooper then tweeted that he “woke up to find out someone gained access to my twitter account.”
just woke up to find out someone gained access to my twitter account. i have not sent a tweet in days or replied to any tweets. We are looking into how this happened.
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) December 13, 2017
That didn’t stop a number of users responding in support of the tweet, with Holly O’Reilly saying, “Dude, it was epic. You should have just left it,” and Lori Sirianni adding that what the tweet said “wasn’t offensive to most of us.”
Some were less inclined to believe the “hacked” explanation, with @BrandoLauren tweeting, “We all know you were drunk tweeting Trump, happens to the best of us.”
The interaction between Cooper’s account and Trump’s came after Alabama rejected Moore in Tuesday’s special election.
Democrat Doug Jones bested the Republican Moore, who was beset allegations that he had molested a 14-year-old girl and repeatedly dated teenagers while he was in his 30s.
It represented a stunning upset in the predominantly conservative and Republican state, which overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
In his victory speech, Jones alluded to Moore’s beleaguered campaign.
“At the end of the day, this — this entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign — this campaign has been about the rule of law,” Jones said. “This campaign has been about common courtesy and decency and making sure everyone in this state, regardless of which zip code you live in, is going to get a fair shake in life.”
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