President Donald Trump’s feud with CNN is well-documented and many thought last night that this would be taken to the next level when CNN anchor Anderson Cooper had apparently tweeted Trump is a “pathetic loser.”
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CNN and Cooper’s official explanation for the since deleted tweet is that Cooper’s Twitter account was compromised.
See for yourself: Cooper’s verified account responded to a Wednesday morning tweet from the president, where Trump commented on Republican Roy Moore losing to Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama senate race.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940904649728708609
“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!” Trump said.
People noticed one of the replies to Trump.
Is this Anderson Cooper’s real account? pic.twitter.com/WNq3ioNGvY
— Nicholas Nehamas 🏝 (@NickNehamas) December 13, 2017
Some assumed from the outset that Cooper had been hacked because he would never tweet something like “Oh really? You endorsed him you tool! Pathetic loser.”
Someone hack Anderson Cooper? https://t.co/cNa4S48ya7
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) December 13, 2017
And a hack is what CNN’s PR attributed the tweet to later in the morning.
This morning someone gained access to the handle @andersoncooper and replied to POTUS. We're working with Twitter to secure the account.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 13, 2017
“This morning someone gained access to the handle @andersoncooper and replied to POTUS. We’re working with Twitter to secure the account,” CNN said.
Cooper himself said that he “just woke up to find out someone gained access to my twitter account.”
just woke up to find out someone gained access to my twitter account. i have not sent a tweet in days or replied to any tweets. We are looking into how this happened.
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) December 13, 2017
RELATED: President Trump follows up his son’s swings at CNN’s botched reporting
“I have not sent a tweet in days or replied to any tweets. We are looking into how this happened,” he said.
Explanations aside, the social media response was critical.
BREAKING: CNN discovers hacker who took over Anderson Cooper's account pic.twitter.com/rpI6fWi5HQ
— Anthony Abides (@AnthonyAbides) December 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/940937172680667136
https://twitter.com/thebradfordfile/status/940968703608442880
https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/940973151793577984
Me after hearing Anderson Cooper's twitter was hacked… pic.twitter.com/HqkzHhtZE8
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) December 13, 2017