Las Vegas mayor wants apology from CNN’s Anderson Cooper for mocking her during interview

By Ray Hagar, Nevada Newsmakers

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said on Nevada Newsmakers that Anderson Cooper should apologize for the way the CNN news anchor mocked her during a nationwide interview that went viral last year.

“I think he owes me an apology and I’d love to have it from him,” Goodman told host Sam Shad.

In the April, 2020 interview, Goodman pushed for the reopening of casinos and restaurants during Gov. Sisolak’s mandated closure of non-essential businesses in the state.

Anderson questioned Goodman on the safety and public health concerns of her stance, considering the nation was hunkered down against the Covid-19 epidemic. April was an especially tough month for Covid news, as the number of U.S deaths (62,557) surpassed the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War (58,200) that month.

Goodman’s backers have said some of Anderson’s questions dripped of ridicule. At one point, Cooper took his glasses off, then rubbed his eyes while listening to one of Goodman’s responses. In another instance, Cooper smiled or chuckled when Goodman called him ‘an alarmist.’

Cooper also responded to one of Goodman’s statements with, “Wow, that’s really ignorant.”

“I thought he was rude,” Goodman said of Cooper. “And when I saw the tape afterwards and saw his expressions and hands and everything else, I thought, ‘Oh, if I had only seen you. And you are so lucky I didn’t.'”

Others, however, saw Goodman’s performance as a fiasco, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Late-night TV host and Las Vegas native Jimmy Kimmel tweeted that Goodman “should resign before lunch arrives today. She is an embarrassment to my hometown.”

Goodman could not see Cooper on the TV monitor during the interview because of satellite transmission issues. Re-watching it now, one could see times where the communication between Cooper and Goodman seemed strained.

“At the time, our satellite wasn’t working,” Goodman said. “I didn’t see his face. I didn’t see his props. I didn’t see his gesticulations.

“So I was a sitting duck,” Goodman continued. “And I spoke the truth. I believed in what I said. I believed in it then. I believe in it now. And sadly, we are where we are.”

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