CNN’s Anderson Cooper snapped at commentator Nina Turner during the network’s coverage of Tuesday’s Michigan primary after she made a comment about the “slaughter” of Gazans during the Israel-Hamas war.
Turner, who spoke about the reluctance of some Arab Americans to back President Joe Biden, referred to the “pain” in the “Arab-American community” that she spoke to in Michigan over the desire for a cease-fire.
“While this president was in the ice cream shop saying, ‘I think there’s going to be a ceasefire,’ 30,000 people have been slaughtered,” Turner said. “People are living in famine. They can’t get medical care. So, it can’t come soon enough for them.”
Biden, who ate an ice cream cone during his appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” suggested that there could be a cease-fire deal as soon as Monday. But Hamas and Israel have since cast doubt on a deal, according to reports.
Turner continued: “And I am young enough to remember, colleagues, when Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and also Congresswoman Cori Bush called for a ceasefire very early on. They were called ‘abhorrent.’ Now, fast-forward to all of these bodies laying in the wake and people are living through this every single day–”
Cooper jumped in before Turner could continue her focus on deaths of the Palestinians.
“By the way, there’s also been slaughter in Israel,” he said, before shutting Turner down. “So, there’s a lot of pain on both sides. So, we don’t really need a lecture on the problem. I’m not talking about the politics of this tonight.”
Turner noted that she “wasn’t denying that pain.”
“All I’m saying, that at a certain point after October the 7 it becomes clear. I mean, you have a right-wing prime minister,” she quipped, referring to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We don’t need to debate the issue,” Cooper shot back.
Turner pressed that she was saying that Biden has the “power to say to Netanyahu, ‘We need a permanent ceasefire.”
CNN commentator Bakari Sellers interrupted, saying that “prior to Oct. 7,” there was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Sellers praised Cooper for bringing up that both sides are suffering, before calling for “tangible solutions.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
