Anderson Cooper Confronts Florida AG Pam Bondi: Are You Really A ‘Champion Of The Gay Community’?

[RKP5637]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/14/anderson-cooper-confronts-florida-ag-pam-bondi-are-you-really-a-champion-of-the-gay-community.html

Just moments after Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi praised Anderson Cooper for highlighting the names of the victims in the Pulse nightclub shooting on his show Monday night, the CNN anchor turned things around and accused her of “hypocrisy” when it comes to the LGBT Floridians who were targeted by the gunman.

“I saw you the other day saying that anyone who attacks the LGBT community—our LGBT community, you said—will be gone after to the full extent of the law,” Cooper said during his interview with Bondi live from Orlando this afternoon.

“I talked to a lot of gay and lesbian people here yesterday who are not fans of yours and said that they thought you were being a hypocrite, that you for years have fought—you’ve basically gone after gay people, said that in court that gay people simply by fighting for marriage equality were trying to do harm to the people of Florida.”

“Do you really think you’re a champion of the gay community?” Cooper asked her point blank.

It was back in May 2014 when Bondi filed a brief in which her office argued that “disrupting Florida’s existing marriage laws would impose significant public harm.” Cooper asked her on Tuesday if she worried that such language could “send a message” to people like the Orlando shooter, who may already have “bad ideas in mind” about gay people.

Bondi denied that she ever believed gay marriage would cause “harm” to the citizens of her state. “Those words never came out of my mouth,” she told Cooper. But as the anchor shot back, “That’s what you argued in court.”

“Is it hypocritical to portray yourself as a champion of the gay community when—I’m just reflecting what gay people told me—they don’t see you as this?” Cooper asked. When Bondi continued to push back on this assertion, he added, “It’s just that, I will say I have never really seen you talk about gays and lesbians and transgender people in a positive way until now.”

Earlier this month, NBC News reported that Bondi’s failed fight against marriage equality would cost Florida taxpayers nearly $500,000.

[rurallib]

1. so hopeful that some of the media will quit being lapdogs

and finally call republicans on their lies

[Sophiegirl]

3. But...

That doesn't make for good ratings. Or does it?

[Gore1FL]

4. I'd watch it! nt

[Sophiegirl]

6. What exactly should I watch? n/t

Edit: never mind. Cards fan.

[Gore1FL]

10. News that actually was news

Pete Kozma. LOL

[Sophiegirl]

14. Pfft!!

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/120078736/st-louis-cardinals-pete-kozma-still-gets-booed-by-washington-nationals-fans

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Washington Post made a lot of money when they went after Nixon on Watergate. It pays. . nt

[xmas74]

15. I watched NBC Evening News tonight

and when they got to the Trump story Lester Holt actually corrected a few things that Trump said with the real facts. Oh, and he smirked the whole time he did it. It looked like he greatly enjoyed doing so.

Network news just called him out on his "facts". That's a heck of a start.

[SheilaT]

2. A news person actually confronting and challenging an elected official

for what they actually said. That's incredible, but I hope it is the start of a trend.

[RKP5637]

13. We used to have investigative reporting. Now, most news media are part of the problem. Good for

Cooper on grilling her.

[Fritz Walter]

5. She has NO credibility now

After reports about her office's dropping fraud investigations into Drumpf's "university" immediately after she (or her PAC) received campaign contributions from the boy-man's shadow foundations/corporations, her credibility dropped like a stone through a wet paper bag.

I hate wet paper bags!

[wolfie001]

9. That whole shenanigan is the very definition of a ..........

.....quid pro quo. Only OK if you're a republiturd. She's scum. As all repukes are.

[RKP5637]

12. She's as bad as the crooked gov. of Florida. n/t

[Johnny2X2X]

11. Epic

That was an epic grilling. She squirmed the whole time and he wouldn't let this homophobe off the hook. Well done and it's high time the media starts taking these Cons to task in public.

[LeftRant]

16. She blatantly lied and obfuscated.

"My lawyer argued that"

PFFF.

WITCH!