Anderson Cooper asks Trump 'Who's the thug?' in stinging TV monologue

On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday night, anchor Anderson Cooper questioned President Trump's recent behavior, including his vow to "dominate the streets" as protests continue across the country following George Floyd's death.

On Monday night, peaceful protesters gathered outside the White House at Washington D.C.'s Lafayette Square Park - before Trump called for police officers to use tear gas and rubber bullets to remove them so he could move to a photo op at a nearby church.

Once Trump arrived at St. John's Church (he was reportedly in a bunker under the White House prior to this) he did not pray or speak with leaders, as former Vice President Joe Biden was seen doing in Wilmington. Instead, he simply posed with a bible in hand and left.

Before his walk to the church, Trump made a statement at the White House and vowed to send the military to states if governors and mayors do not curb unrest. Cooper said he had “claimed a power he doesn’t really have."

"He can’t send the military into every state" the TV anchor said, "that’s now law and order. What the president doesn’t seem to know or care is that the vast majority of those protesting, they too are calling for law and order. A black man killed with four officers holding him down, a knee to the neck, for more than eight minutes, more than three minutes which he was no longer conscious for. That is not law and order. That’s murder.”

Cooper added Trump “seems to think that dominating black people, dominating peaceful protesters is law and order. It’s not. He calls them thugs. Who is the thug here? Hiding in a bunker. Hiding behind a suit. Who is the thug? People have waited for days for this wannabe wartime president to say something. And this is what he says. And that is what he does.”

Cooper also discussed his time as a reporter in other countries, saying he's seen "people dying in the streets while protesting."

"I’ve seen countries ripped apart by hate and mystery misinformation and laws and political demagogues and racism," Cooper said. "We can’t let that happen here. Of course violence is no answer, but people protesting deserve answers, and they haven’t gotten them.”

Cooper went on to say, “He has to stick police on peaceful protesters so he can make a big show of being the little big man walking to a closed down church. This event, as I said, if it wasn’t so dangerous and disgusting, it would be funny, because it is so low rent and just sad."

Cooper isn't the only person to call out Trump's church photo opportunity on his show. The bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Mariann Budde, told Anderson Cooper, "He sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church guard. I am outraged."

Budde said, "The president just used a Bible, sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for."