MSNBC host blasts Anderson Cooper, CNN over 'gaslighting' on Trump town hall: 'Cleanup on aisle 5'

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MSNBC's Joy Reid blasts CNN, Anderson Cooper over Trump town hall: 'Clean up on aisle 5'

MSNBC's Joy Reid blasted Anderson Cooper and CNN on Friday over the network's town hall with Donald Trump and said people didn't need to be lectured about how we should be "forced to endure it."

MSNBC's Joy Reid blasted CNN and CNN host Anderson Cooper on Friday over "gaslighting" on the network's town hall with Donald Trump and described it as a "cleanup on aisle 5." 

"We begin with the continued cleanup on aisle five at CNN in the wake of widespread criticism over its decision to air a town hall with the twice impeached civilly liable for sexual abuse former President Donald Trump on Wednesday night that played out more like a pep rally or a MAGA version of the Jerry Springer show," Reid said. 

Cooper criticized Trump and the audience during his show on Thursday, before saying people had "every right" to never watch CNN again.

"You have every right to be outraged and angry and never watch this network again. But 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. 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," he told viewers.

MSNBC's Joy Reid blasted CNN and Anderson Cooper on Friday over the networks town hall with Trump.  (Screenshot/MSNBC/TheReidout)

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Reid insisted during MSNBC's "The Reidout" on Friday that people did not need to see a "Trump pep rally on CNN." 

"We didn’t need a Trump pep rally on CNN to understand what Trump is. He literally posts his garbage views on his fake Twitter every day, and every media outlet reports on it. He has rallies where he dishes out his gross insults with cameras watching. We get it. A lot of people like it. And vote for it," Reid said. 

Reid said she didn't need CNN or Cooper to "lecture us about how we should be forced to endure it."  

"Because some of us actually know that stuff is wrong. And that American politics and American democracy deserve better," she added.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event Monday, March 13, 2023, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ron Johnson) (AP )

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Reid said people who used to work at CNN said Cooper was "gaslighting" them.

"That is what you call a strawman argument, especially that the only two options available to you are listening to a former president mock a woman a jury found that he sexually abused while the audience laughs and applauds, or pretending 74 million Americans who voted for Trump don’t exist," she said. 

Reid previously criticized the network after they announced they would be hosting the town hall.

Former US President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. (standard bearer. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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"It feels to me like this is a pretty open attempt by CNN to push itself to the right and make itself attractive and show its belly to MAGA and to conservatives hoping that they will tune in," Reid said on Tuesday.

"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin criticized Cooper on Friday as well. 

"And I’m saddened — I used to work for CNN for quite some time. Anderson Cooper has been my friend for over 20 years, and I’m saddened that he tried to gaslight me yesterday by saying that people are in ‘silos.’ People aren’t living in a silo, they are choosing to listen to the lies or not," she said.