Anderson Cooper says Trump acting like an ‘obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun’

CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday criticized President Trump’s multi-state legal battle to halt ballot counting, claiming that the president is acting “like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun realizing his time is over.” 

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this from a president of the United States,” Cooper said of Trump’s claims without evidence of voter fraud and that the election was being stolen from him. 

“It’s sad and it is truly pathetic,” Cooper continued. “And of course it is dangerous and of course it will go to courts, but you’ll notice the president did not have any evidence presented at all. Nothing. No real actual evidence of any kind of fraud. He talked about people putting up papers in windows, he talked about things he’d seen on the internet.

“That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world,” he added. “We see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over, but he just hasn’t accepted it and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.” 

Anderson Cooper: “That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world. We see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over.” pic.twitter.com/Az8Gp22wfJ

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 6, 2020

Trump, who currently trails Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s 264 electoral votes with 214, told reporters Thursday that he believed he would ultimately win the election and promised a lengthy legal fight to challenge the results. 

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late, we’re looking at them very strongly,” Trump told reporters. 

The Associated Press and Fox News have projected Biden as the winner of Arizona, though other news outlets — including The New York Times — have not.

As of Thursday early evening, Biden is leading in Nevada, which has six electoral votes, the exact amount he needs to secure the election.

Trump is ahead in Pennsylvania, but his lead is narrowing by the hour as heavily-Democratic absentee ballots are counted last. The Biden campaign believes when vote counting is completed, Biden will win the Keystone State’s 20 electoral votes. 

“Our data shows Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a conference call with reporters earlier Thursday.

Trump’s remarks Thursday evening drew rebuke from some of his Republican allies, with former Republican senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum telling CNN that claiming “fraud without any evidence is dangerous.” 

This week, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania over the continued counting of absentee ballots. A Michigan judge has since dismissed the lawsuit there, which alleged that Republican officials had been denied access to video of ballot drop boxes.

The Trump team has also demanded a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden won by roughly 20,000 votes.