CNN’s Anderson Cooper targeted White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham in a mocking take on her recent Fox News appearance.
Cooper reacted to the “rarely seen” Grisham during a segment of “The Ridiculist” on his CNN program, “Anderson Cooper 360” on Friday.
(Video: CNN)
“Grisham poked her head out this morning to check in with her supervisors over at Fox News,” Cooper said, taking a dig at Grisham for not holding any press conferences since taking the White House job in the summer.
He turned his focus to Grisham’s account of the press briefing held by acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney which drew much criticism and sent the White House into damage control after he appeared to contradict President Trump on any quid pro quo in his call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Damn, Grisham’s a truth-teller,” Cooper mocked after rolling his eyes and shaking his head through the playback of her videotaped remarks. “Does everyone working for the president have to debase themselves and lie like he does?”
He went on to criticize Grisham for something she “has workshopped before,” as he highlighted her comments about press conferences being like “theater.”
In light of Mulvaney’s controversial press conference, Grisham was asked by Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade why she wasn’t the one who spoke to reporters instead of Mulvaney.
“If the president ever wants me to go out and take that podium, I will happily do it,” she told “Fox & Friends.”
(Video: YouTube/Fox News)
“I think as evidenced by yesterday with Mick, it was, again, more theater. It is about people wanting to be on TV and making names for themselves,” Grisham said.
Noting that Mulvaney “did a great job,” Grisham accused the media of getting themselves “in a tizzy,” leading Mulvaney to issue a statement clarifying “there was absolutely no quid pro quo.”
“Stephanie! You got to increase your vocabulary,” Cooper mocked, noting that she used the word ‘theater’ twice. “Grisham clearly doesn’t get to Broadway enough if she thinks those press conferences are theater. Maybe on one of these seven days a week she’s not doing her job, she can catch a matinée of Hamilton.”
“Also, I hate to break it to her, TV reporters are already on TV. So, no need to try to get on TV because that’s where they work, on TV,” he said.
“It’s tough to grasp but it’s actually how the entire TV medium works. I am on TV right now,” Cooper continued. “The newspaper reporters, they’re covering the White House so they probably already made a name for themselves. You know what I mean?”
He went on to argue that “holding the president and his staff to account” is not theater.
“Theater is, I don’t know, the president spending taxpayers dollars on a military parade for the purpose of fluffing his own ego,” he said, going on to name other examples that fit his narrative.
Grisham told the “Fox & Friends” hosts that she will hold briefings and speak to reporters if she needs to but Trump “speaks for himself.”
“He offers opportunities for the press corps to ask him questions every day and there really is no better spokesperson than the president,” she said.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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