Controversial Anderson Cooper Moments We Can't Forget About

Anderson Cooper has been a mainstay in the news world since he started in broadcast journalism in 1992. He's written a number of books, moderated presidential election debates, and Cooper's interviewed high-profile guests ranging from Prince Harry  to Eminem to Barack Obama. He's moderated "Anderson Cooper 360" since 2003 for CNN, and he's also a longtime correspondent and host for "60 Minutes" on CBS News.

With all of his time on-air, he's gotten plenty of accolades and made news of his own for his reporting. His coverage of mass shootings in Uvalde and at the Pulse nightclub were notable for their compassion, and while covering looting after an earthquake in Haiti, he helped a young boy who'd been injured. On the lighter side, there's Cooper's signature giggle, which has notably surfaced as he hosts CNN's "New Year's Eve" special with Andy Cohen. 

But it's not all heroic moments and fun giggles with the seasoned reporter. Cooper has also been called out for some on-air moments over the years. These are some of the ones we can't forget.

CNN was called out in May 2023 for hosting a town hall featuring former president Donald Trump and giving him what some believed to be too much latitude when it came to telling the truth. Anderson Cooper then defended the network on his CNN show, saying essentially that if people had a problem with Trump, it wasn't CNN's fault and that you can't ignore someone just because you don't like them. That made things worse.

NPR's Eric Deggans, for one, aired his issues with Cooper's comments on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing: "What I hate about Anderson Cooper's defense of CNN's lame town hall w/Donald Trump is he presents a false choice: ignore Trump or platform him w/no effective pushback. Why not challenge him effectively (and admit you failed this time)?"

Deggans wasn't alone. Former CNN reporter Jeff Greenfield thought Cooper's defense of the situation was problematic and missed the point. Others on social media voiced their annoyance with Cooper's stance, with some referring to it as gaslighting while others thought it was condescending.

While Donald Trump was president, Kellyanne Conway was a frequent guest as a Counselor to the President, and that included a number of appearances on "Anderson Cooper 360." While Cooper is usually a consummate journalist who keeps things professional, it seems that he just couldn't hold in his personal opinions during her May 2017 appearance. Conway was on the show speaking about Trump firing FBI Director James Comey on his show, and at one point as Conway was talking, Cooper rolled his eyes. Social media lit up and it became an almost instant GIF.

While some loved it, other people were pretty upset, and one of those people was Conway. She spoke about the eye rolling incident on "Fox & Friends," referring to it as sexist. Then "The View" took up the issue during one of their "Hot Topics" segment, though they disagreed with Conway's perspective on the situation.

It's something that Cooper later said he wished he hadn't done. On an episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" a couple of months after it happened, Cooper was asked about the eye roll, and he said: "It's not something I consciously did, and I want to be respectful to anybody I interview. [...] I absolutely regretted it."

Kellyanne Conway is not the first conservative that Anderson Cooper has clashed with and had regrets about. In an interview in May 2017 with conservative political commentator Jeffrey Lord, the two were having a back and forth about Donald Trump and Cooper said, "If [Trump] took a dump on his desk, you'd defend it." He apologized not long after, including with a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: "I regret the crude sentence i [sic] spoke earlier tonight and followed it up by apologizing on air. It was unprofessional. I am genuinely sorry."

Lord seemed to have taken the comment more in stride than Conway did the eye roll incident. He tweeted in response to Cooper's apology, seeming to confirm there were no hard feelings.

While some applauded Cooper for saying what he truly seemed to feel, others thought it was appalling and that his apology didn't go far enough. Talk show host Joe "Pags" Pagliarulo tweeted, "The problem isn't that you said it — it's the mindset in which you live where that exists." 

When Anderson Cooper interviewed Lady Gaga for "60 Minutes" in 2011, some people think Cooper crossed the line with one of his questions. In a moment that didn't make the interview that aired on "60 Minutes," but instead was a part of "60 Minutes Overtime," Cooper asked Gaga about the rumor that she had female and male genitalia, to which she replied, "Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible?" Some thought he should have stayed out of the situation entirely, and Gaga's response to Cooper has stayed with people for years.

Then in 2012, Cooper was called out by some for using his show to interview Mandi, who said she identified as transgender only after taking a drug that slows hair loss and can be used to treat benign prostate enlargement. While Cooper did push back against Mandi's claims that the drug was at fault, some think that Cooper never should have given her the platform to begin with.

Mara Keisling, director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, released a statement before the show, which read, in part: "All of us here at the National Center for Transgender Equality are surprised, saddened and disappointed that a respected show like 'Anderson Live' would give credence to this type of sensationalism and misinformation."