Campaign watch: Anderson Cooper rolls over again!

THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016

Donald Trump's favorite puppy: Anderson Cooper was born to one of America's wealthiest families. Today, he's reportedly paid $11 million per year.

Back in September 2014, we tried to help you understand the famous fellow's life style. In June of that year, "Coop" had purchased a new weekend estate. Emily Smith gave readers the feel of the place in the New York Post:

SMITH (6/21/14): Anderson Cooper and his partner, Benjamin Maisani, will be relaxing in historic splendor in Connecticut’s affluent Litchfield County this summer. Multiple sources tell us the CNN anchor has splurged on a massive, 10,127-square-foot Tudor revival stone mansion, called Rye House, for the mid-to-high seven figures.

The tony estate—sold by Karen Shaw, a former Miss Connecticut who starred on “Dallas” and “The A Team,” and her husband, Marc—was built in 1908 and designed by Wilson Eyre, a founder of House & Garden magazine. The home includes an Olympic-size swimming pool and tennis court, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Its 18 rooms feature original chestnut wood paneling, limestone fireplaces and a hand-carved marble staircase. There’s also a private four-bedroom guest wing. The 280-acre grounds boast Japanese pagoda trees, wisteria, magnolias, a walkway with stone pillars and a grape arbor.

The tony estate sat on only 280 acres—but, in fairness, the place was just for weekends. According to Smith, Cooper’s Gotham residence was a Greenwich Village firehouse he bought in 2010 for $4.3 million. That July, Yahoo Homes reported that "Coop” was selling his side-by-side waterfront homes in the Hamptons (combined asking price: $6.2 million) to help swing the Litchfield deal.

At the time, we asked a question. Could journalism ever emerge from a world of this type?

Last night, Cooper helped answer our question. Once again, he spent an hour cast in the role of Donald's favorite pup.

At the conclusion of last night's show, Slate's Isaac Chotiner battered Coop for his hour of good-natured belly-scratching. The headline on the Chotiner piece called Cooper's work a "disgrace."

Isaac Chotiner got it right. Consider an important example:

Earth to Springer spaniels: Rather plainly, Trump plans to attack Candidate Clinton regarding Iraq if they face off in the fall. To enable this planned attack, Trump keeps pretending that he opposed the war before it began.

During a GOP debate last fall, Trump dramatically claimed that he could provide 25 news reports about his fierce opposition. But uh-oh! There is zero evidence of this opposition, as everyone, including Cooper, surely knows by now.

No such reports have ever been found! But so what? Trump just keeps advancing the general claim about his alleged opposition.

Puppies like Cooper are charged with the task of helping their meal ticket do this. Presumably, Cooper need ratings to justify his very large scratch, and Candidate Trump provides them. Presumably, CNN management wants Cooper to keep the hopeful so happy that he'll just keep coming back.

In all likelihood, this explains why Cooper rolled over and played dead for Trump again. Below, you see the start of last night's discussion of Trump and Iraq. Gloria Vanderbilt may be his mom, but you-know-who is his owner:

COOPER (3/9/16): On foreign policy. Is there—and maybe you haven't; you know, you've been running a campaign. Have you started thinking about a, sort of a "Trump doctrine" when, for using foreign power overseas? What criteria do you look that?

TRUMP: First of all, there can be no doctrine, because everything is different. Every situation is different. And I didn't want to go into Iraq, and I'll say it a hundred times. I didn't want to go.

You know, they say, "You were on Howard Stern's show"—years, you know, before it ever happened. And he asked me that question, and he's a friend of mine. He's a good guy actually, much different than you see on radio. Believe me.

COOPER: He's a great interviewer.

TRUMP: He's a great guy. But Howard asked me, and I said, "We-e-ell, I don't know." That's was the first time I was ever asked. But don't forget, I'm an entrepreneur. They don't ask me about "should we go into Iraq" at that time. And this was long before we went in. And you could see that I was very hesitant. It wasn't like, "Oh, we should go in." Look—

Just for now, let's break in.

As he started this line of feigned discussion, Cooper gifted his guest with a pre-scripted excuse. Trump has been running a campaign! Maybe he hasn't had time to think about policy yet!

Quickly, Trump launched into his standard claims about his prescience concerning Iraq. As always, the dissembling started instantly, with Cooper forgetting to notice.

Uh-oh! Now that a September 2002 interview with Howard Stern has turned up, Trump has to account for his statements that day when he pretends that he had foresight concerning Iraq.

Last night, Trump told Cooper that the interview with Stern was "years before [the war] ever happened." In fact, the interview occurred a few weeks before the all-important House/Senate votes on the war resolution.

The nonsense continued from there.

Cooper's main contribution during this dodge was his praise for Howard Stern as "a great interviewer." But wouldn't you know it? A few weeks ago, Cooper recited the exact same line for Trump!

Here's a brief excerpt from that February 19 session. On that occasion, Cooper performed exactly the same pet trick:

TRUMP (2/19/16) I mean, I was totally against the war. I was very much against it. That was probably the first time I was ever even asked about the war. Howard, who's a great guy, by the way. A lot of people don't understand that. But he is—

COOPER: He's a great interviewer.

TRUMP: He's a great—he's a great interview. He's a very talented guy and a good guy. But that was probably the first time—I don't remember that, but it was probably the first time I was asked about it.

Cooper seems to have learned all his tricks. Last evening, he repeated his line, word for word, from several weeks before.

For our report on the February interview, you can just click here. Concerning last night's pseudo-exchange, Trump continued as shown below.

Cooper politely listened:

COOPER (3/9/16): He's a great interviewer.

TRUMP: He's a great guy. But Howard asked me, and I said, "We-e-ell, I don't know." That's was the first time I was ever asked. But don't forget, I'm an entrepreneur. They don't ask me about "should we go into Iraq" at that time. And this was long before we went in. And you could see that I was very hesitant. It wasn't like, "Oh, we should go in." Look—

COOPER: What criteria would you use for sending troops somewhere?

TRUMP: Let me just tell you. Going into Iraq, in my opinion, was one of the worst mistakes in the history of this country. It was one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of this country. It started everything that's happening today in the Middle East is because of that one decision to go into Iraq, OK? It was a horrible decision, including the migration. Everything that—you know, it's a mess.

Now, if Saddam Hussein was there, would we be better off? Absolutely! You know, hey, this was not a nice man. This wasn't a great guy. But Saddam Hussein did one thing. He killed terrorists. He was a professional killer of terrorists.

Now you want to be a terrorist? You go to Iraq. That's called "the Harvard of terrorism." Look, whether it's Gaddafi, terrible decision. Hillary Clinton! Whether it's Saddam Hussein, we were a lot better off before. And besides that, Iraq did not knock down the World Trade Center. Just in case you had any questions.

COOPER: Do you think Islam is at war with the west?

Cooper let Trump recite his spiel, then moved to the next question. For the three thousandth time, he failed to ask him about his past statements concerning all those news reports about his bold past conduct.

In 2014, we asked if journalism could ever emerge from the lifestyle of Anderson Cooper. Last night, a certain candidate's favorite puppy barked his reply loud and clear.

Cooper won't challenge Trump about his bogus claims on Iraq. He won't ask him why he made all those bogus claims about sending investigators to Hawaii to research Obama's phony claims about his phony birth.

Instead, Trump's favorite puppy brings Trump the ball, then sits while his master speaks.

Chotiner savaged Cooper last night; few career writers will do that. You'll never see that from [Name Withheld], to cite one disappointing example.

Dearest darlings, it just isn't done, and very few liberals complain! We simply aren't able to play this game. We've proven this point in the past.

A note on last night's transcript: We've checked last night's transcript against the tape. This produced several corrections.

Concerning an error by Trump: As shown above, Trump referred to Iraq as "the Harvard of terrorism."

He meant to say "the Wharton School." We assume he regrets the error.