Anderson Cooper defends CNN's Donald Trump "town hall" and it ain't good

Anderson Cooper tried to come to CNN's defense after the network's disastrous Trump town hall caused a furious backlash, but instead his spiel came off as both patronizing and bizarre.

First Cooper admitted that Donald Trump "hasn't changed," that he is "someone who tried to destroy our democracy," and that he "predictably continued to spew lie after lie after lie"— as if those are good reasons to give the twice-impeached conman a platform.

"Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions and predictably continued to spew lie after lie after lie. And I get it. It was disturbing," he said.

The CNN anchor then tried to shame viewers who didn't agree with CNN's decision to give the former twice-impeached election-denying president a platform by asking, "Do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?"

"If we all only listen to those we agree with, it may actually do the opposite," he continued. "If lies are allowed to go unchecked, as imperfect as our ability to check them is on a stage in real-time, those lies continue and those lies spread." Uh, yeah [ahem], that's exactly what the viewers are saying.

(See video below, posted by Acyn.)

Front page thumbnail image: Anderson Cooper / CNN