For the second consecutive night, a CNN host had a blowup at a Republican guest as Anderson Cooper excoriated former New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu for being ‘a d***.’
On Monday night, Abby Phillip lost patience with ‘black sheep’ conservative commentator Scott Jennings on air.
Tonight, Cooper and Sununu – who was also a guest on Phillip’s show the night before – got into it in a discussion over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk and his son X took over the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon to mark President Donald Trump signing a DOGE-centric executive order and also took questions from the press.
Sununu called the entire event ‘surreal’ but added that he was impressed with the ideas Musk put forward.
‘I know what you’re not showing here but Musk gave seven specific examples off the top of his head of where the corruption and fraud were,’ he said.
Cooper responded: ‘But we didn’t see any of that. He doesn’t present any actual evidence.’
The anchor also claimed that Musk has a history of giving false statements in public and online.
For the second consecutive night, a CNN host had a blowup at a Republican guest as Anderson Cooper accused former New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu of being ‘a d***’
Cooper and Sununu (pictured center) got into it in a discussion over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency
Sununu replied: ‘He’s standing there in the Oval Office, do you expect him to come in with 10,000 pages?’
The Republican former governor added that Musk and Trump’s ‘transparency’ was a refreshing change from the Biden administration.
Sununu then got into it with legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who argued that it wasn’t transparent ‘to say things that have no factual background.’
‘It’s 23 days in here, guys, 23 days. You’re talking about 2.3 billion that was saved last year. These guys are saving 2.3 billion a day,’ Sununu claimed.
Toobin then responded by asking where the proof of that was, with Sununu arguing that Toobin wouldn’t be happy unless Musk provided ‘10,000 pages.’
Cooper interjected, claiming: ‘He’s giving very specific things, but he’s not actually giving any evidence of that.’
Sununu then promised that Musk and the Republicans would go to Congress to prove what they were doing if they had to.
Things became heated when Cooper brought up a claim that $59 million was spent on luxury hotels for migrants.
Musk and his son X took over the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon to mark President Donald Trump signing a DOGE-centric executive order and also took questions from the press
Sununu shot back: ‘You’re talking about the FEMA money that was abused for migrants. That was FEMA money for migrants. That’s ok now?’
‘No, I’m not saying it’s ok. Don’t put words in my mouth,’ said Cooper.
Sununu then asked: ‘So, would you stop that? Would you stop that process?’
Finally, Cooper had had enough, saying: ‘Don’t be a d***. What I’m saying is the portrayal by him is just not factually accurate. He’s talking about luxury hotels,’ before it was drowned out by crosstalk.
Musk joked in the Oval Office Tuesday that the scrutiny DOGE is receiving is like receiving a ‘daily proctology exam’ but vowed to root out the highest-paid D.C. bureaucrats.
An executive order, which wasn’t immediately released by the White House, was intended to ‘significantly’ scale back the federal workforce, pushing agencies to hire ‘no more than one employee for every four employees’ that depart, according to Semafor.
Trump didn’t even bother signing the order in front of reporters, allowing Musk to hold court with his toddler for more than 30 minutes instead, with the president asking Musk to reveal some of his findings.
‘We do find it sort of odd that, you know, there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,’ Musk said. ‘Which is what happened in USAID. We’re just curious as to where it came from.’
Sununu and Cooper became heated at times, with Cooper accusing the former governor of putting words in his mouth
Finally, Cooper had had enough, saying: ‘Don’t be a d***. What I’m saying is the portrayal by him is just not factually accurate. He’s talking about luxury hotels,’ before it was drowned out by crosstalk
‘Maybe they’re very good at investing, in which case we should take their investment advice perhaps,’ Musk said.
Trump rubber-stamped what Musk was up to, telling reporters, ‘We don’t want an unsuccessful guy doing this.’
‘And I fully expect to be scrutinized and get a daily proctology exam, basically,’ Musk joked. ‘Might as well just camp out there.’
Musk scoffed when asked about his ‘detractors’ and said the American people voted for these cuts.
‘I have detractors? I don’t believe it,’ the South African-born billionaire replied.
‘Well, first of all, you couldn’t ask for a stronger mandate from the public,’ he continued. ‘The public voted, a majority of the public voted for President Trump.’
‘We won the House, we won the Senate. The people voted for major government reform. There should be no doubt about it. That was on the campaign – the president spoke about that at every rally,’ he went on.
‘People are going to get what they voted for,’ Musk insisted. ‘And that’s what democracy is all about.’
DOGE’s decision to quickly hole out USAID – the United States Agency for International Development – prompted criticism and protests, with Democratic allies in Congress standing alongside federal workers.
There were also major concerns about Musk having access to the Department of Treasury’s payments system.
Musk conceded Tuesday that DOGE’s actions haven’t been perfect.
‘And we are moving fast, so we all make mistakes, but we’ll also fix the mistakes very quickly,’ the SpaceX, X and Tesla head said.
Overall he justified DOGE’s assault on USAID.
‘I think that there are some worth things but overall, if you say, what is the bang for the buck, I would say it’s not very good,’ Musk said.
Right out of the gate, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had claimed the DOGE unearthed $50 million being spent on condoms headed for Gaza.
Trump added to that by suggesting that Hamas fighters were using those condoms to create ‘bombs.’ In the past, Hamas had used condoms, balloons and other inflatables to set fires to Israeli farmland.
But on Tuesday, Musk conceded that the $50 million condoms to Gaza was an inaccurate figure.
‘First of all, some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So nobody’s going to bat a thousand,’ the billionaire said.
‘I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million in condoms anywhere, frankly, I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about,’ Musk said. ‘But you know, if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza I’m like that’s not as bad, but why are we doing that?’