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

Boston, Massachusetts/USA – April 19, 2013: Anderson Cooper in Boston after the marathon bombing. Photo: Shutterstock

Our CNN anchor fired back at Donald Trump for lying about him. Trump claimed that Cooper coached E. Jean Carroll – the woman Trump sexually assaulted in a department store in the 1990s – in an interview during a commercial break. But the problem is that during their taped interview, Cooper and Carroll did not wait during the commercial break.

“Then there was an interview with Anderson Cooper where she essentially said: No, he did not rape me… On the Anderson Cooper tape is an interview with [Carroll] and Cooper says something like, 'Did he rape you? Did he rape you?' … She gave a very good answer for me, but a bad answer for Anderson for CNN, and he said we're going to go to a commercial break. Then she came back from the commercial break and was much more hostile,” Trump said during a recent press conference at Trump Tower.

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He continued, “But this man would not allow us to use the tape or ask the proper questions about the tape. He would not allow us, the judge, Judge Kaplan, would not use it. We wanted the outtakes. In other words, what was Anderson Cooper talking to her about during the commercial break that he immediately demanded?”

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Cooper said Trump made a similar claim in his court testimony, in which Carroll claimed he sexually abused her. In the transcript of the Oct. 19, 2022, testimony, Trump said, “If you look at Anderson Cooper's interview with her promoting a really crappy book, you'll see it's a complete hoax. She changed her story from start to finish after the commercial break to suit the purposes of CNN and Andy Cooper.” Trump confirmed at trial that this was true.

Cooper said he doesn't usually respond when Trump makes a claim about him, pointing to a Truth Social post from May in which Trump refers to Cooper as “Alison Cooper,” which was likely a homophobic joke since Cooper is a gay man. Cooper even acknowledges that it was a “third degree gay jibe.”

He then responded to Trump's conspiracy theory claim by showing a full clip of the interview and what happened behind the scenes.

“So the former president seems to be suggesting that something we or I discussed with E. Jean Carroll during a four-minute commercial break that you saw at home caused Ms. Carroll to change her tone toward him,” Cooper says. “The problem with that conspiracy theory is that this interview was actually pre-recorded, and we had to pre-record the transition to a commercial break and then greet viewers again after a commercial break so that the entire two parts of the interview would fit into my broadcast that evening… 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 greet viewers again as if you just came out of a commercial break and continue with the interview.”

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

Cooper then brought up the unedited video, in which he pauses briefly after laughing at a comment Carroll made about wanting to check on the producer and crew behind the scenes. Just a few seconds later, he brings the interview back up and continues the segment as normal. During the break, Cooper did not speak to Carroll.

In that 2022 statement, Trump claimed that Carroll said she was not raped and that she “loved” being sexually assaulted. In fact, however, she said she was hesitant 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 is your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said she loved being sexually assaulted by you,” asked Carroll's attorney, who has been open about her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, during Trump's testimony.

Trump replied, “Well, based on your interview with Anderson Cooper, I believe it was.”

The Carroll trial ended last year when a jury found Trump guilty of sexual assault and defamation and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages. In a separate lawsuit, he was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay her $83.3 million. Trump is currently appealing the verdict. The judges who will oversee his trial were appointed by former President Barack Obama and incumbent President Joe Biden.

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