While most eyes were on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as they thrashed out their ideological differences for the second Presidential debate, a third person emerged as the unlikely hero of the night.
Moderator Anderson Cooper has been widely praised online for grilling Trump after 2005 footage of the Republican nominee boasting about grabbing women “by the p***y” emerged at the weekend.
Getting straight to the point, the CNN anchor said: “You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault.
“You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”
Anderson Cooper to Donald Trump: "You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?" #debate pic.twitter.com/n1BoEAy6Ju — New York Times Video (@nytvideo) October 10, 2016
“No, I didn’t say that at all, I don’t think you understood what was said. This was locker-room talk,” Trump returned, before shifting the focus to ISIS.
But of course, Cooper wasn’t having any of it.
“Just for the record though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?” he pressed.
“I have great respect for women," Trump replied, "Nobody has more respect for women than I do.”
His evasion fell on deaf ears however, and only promoted the moderator to again ask, “Have you ever done those things?” before Trump finally responded that, “No, I have not.”
While many in the Twittersphere were quick to crown Cooper the winner of the debate, not everyone was pleased with his performance and a number of Trump supporters accused him of being biased.
