Anderson Cooper Expertly Shuts Down Ex-GOP Rep's Defense Of Trump's Lies

CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday refused to have a bar of former GOP Rep. Scott Taylor’s defense of Donald Trump’s election denialism.

Cooper asked the ex-Virginia lawmaker about Trump’s effort over the weekend to lay the groundwork to call the 2024 election rigged if he loses. The former president posted on Truth Social suggesting mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania will be “fraudulent” and Democrats will try to cheat.

“He’s lying about this in Pennsylvania. There’s no widespread election voter fraud. There’s no evidence of it in mail-in ballots. People just discount this. It’s like at this point it’s just, ‘Oh, this is what he does,’” Cooper said to his guest. “Do you think this is acceptable?”

Taylor, who served in Congress from 2017 to 2019, argued that “there are a lot of folks out there, literally millions of Americans, who had a big problem with 2020.”

Cooper interrupted: “Factually, they don’t have any evidence. Like, courts looked at it.”

“Just saying ‘a lot of people feel this’ doesn’t make it true. I think you know it’s not true, I assume,” Cooper added.

Taylor insisted that there were “tons of irregularities in the 2020 election that never happened before.” He noted that he lost his reelection campaign that year, and “there are many people, [including] folks in my family, who had issues with the way that 2020 was handled.”

The CNN anchor wasn’t having it.

“There’s people who think the earth is flat ... that doesn’t make it real,” he fired back.

Nonetheless, Taylor didn’t back down. Another guest on the segment, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), also took aim.

“Man Scott, I love you, but come on, dude,” he told his former colleague. “Our words have an impact on this country.”

Trump has spent the last four years falsely complaining that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The Republican nominee has repeatedly set himself up to do so again in November should he lose to Vice President Kamala Harris.