Trump Blasts Cooper, Then Gives Him Big Melania Scoop (Video)

The Republican nominee for president has called the out CNN journalist "biased," but decided he was the best person to interview his wife about the 2005 tape that put his campaign into a tailspin.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

October 17 2016 8:55 PM EST

October 17 2016 9:55 PM EST

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Before the second presidential debate, held October 9, Donald Trump repeatedly questioned the integrity of gay journalist Anderson Cooper, who moderated the event with Martha Raddatz (and became the first openly gay journalist to moderate a presidential debate). Trump's accusations that Cooper was "very biased" now seem to conflict with his team's decision to grant Cooper an exclusive interview with his wife, Melania, about the Access Hollywood tape where the businessman bragged about sexually assaulting women.

Cooper's interview with Melania Trump aired Monday evening, with the former model saying she was "surprised [by the tape] because that's not the man that I know" and chalked it up to "boy talk." Trump also claimed her husband was egged on by Access Hollywood host Billy Bush to say "dirty and bad stuff."

Nothing that Melania Trump said was as shocking as her decision to sit down with Cooper in the first place. After Cooper was announced as one of the moderators of the second debate, Donald Trump toldThe Washington Post, "[Cooper will] be very biased, very biased. I don't think he should be a moderator. I'll participate, but I don't think he should be a moderator." In the same interview, Trump also made a cryptic reference to "how Anderson Cooper behaves."

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What's also interesting is that Cooper has been widely commended for confronting Trump on the hot-mike tape. At the debate, Cooper asked Trump if he ever sexually assaulted women as he described in the leaked audio. Trump denied it. Days later, nearly a dozen women would accuse Trump of sexual assault, saying the candidate's public denial prompted them to speak up publicly.

Cooper has interviewed Melania Trump before, so it's entirely possible that she wanted the CNN journalist to conduct the interview.