CNN anchor Anderson Cooper calls Donald Trump ‘an obese turtle flailing in the hot sun’ in brutal take down

A CNN anchor delivered a brutal summary of Donald Trump’s “sad and defeated” White House speech, describing him as a “obese turtle flailing in the hot sun.”

During an address on Thursday, the US President doubled down on claims that he is being cheated out of re-election, making unsubstantiated claims about vote rigging and vowing that the Supreme Court will ultimately decide who wins.

“We have so much evidence, so much proof and it's going to end up, perhaps, at the highest court in the land,” he claimed. "We think there will be a lot of litigation because we can't have an election stolen like this."

But many observers said that Mr Trump’s trademark confidence was absent during his speech, with some noting that he appeared “defeated”.

Describing the scene to viewers, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said: “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this from the president of the United States and I think, it’s sad and it is truly pathetic and, of course, it’ll go through the courts.”

Going further, he added: “The president had no evidence, nothing, no real actual evidence of any kind of fraud.

“He talked about people putting things up in windows, he talked about things he saw on the internet."

An exasperated Cooper then stared straight down to the camera lens and said: "That is the President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realising his time is over.

“But he just hasn’t accepted it and he wants to take everyone down with him, including this country."

Twitter erupted at the quote with some claiming to have “fallen in love” with Cooper and others calling it poetry.

Others just felt sorry for obese turtles:

Jennifer Morrow tweeted: “The fatphobia of the Anderson Cooper comment has been noted by many but I would also like to stress that it is offensive to me personally as the former caretaker of an actual obese turtle who was lovely. And yes, I tried to put her on a diet. She did NOT want to be on a diet.”

Other commentators also shared Cooper’s views on Mr Trump’s speech.

Dana Bash, a co-anchor on CNN said: “I’m not an emotional person, but I’m having a hard time keeping it together.” She then added that she had reached out to senior Republicans “to ask when the intervention was going to happen, because this isn’t just partisan. It’s nonsensical; it’s illogical.”

Former White House director of communications Anthony Scaramucci said the president “looked and sounded defeated” in an address in which Mr Trump “told a litany of lies, but the delivery was meek”.

“Expect a few more days of squirming, then he’ll slink away,” Mr Scaramucci added.

Republican pundit SE Cupp, formerly of Fox News and now with CNN, said: “This is a sad, small man, incoherently rattling off his grievances, because there’s literally nothing else he can do to stop what’s happening – legally and legitimately.”

Democratic activist Scott Dworkin added: “Trump is ranting right not saying a bunch of nonsense and lies. He looks super tired and defeated.”

Journalist Molly Knight said the president “looks so pathetic and weak. Defeated, humiliated, over. He can’t even put his heart into these lies”.

With millions of votes yet to be tabulated, Mr Biden already had received more than 71 million votes, the most in history.

"Each ballot must be counted and that's what we're going to see going through now and that's how it should be," Mr Biden said from his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.

"We continue to feel very good about where things stand, we have no doubt that when the count is finished Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners.

"So I ask everyone to stay calm, all the people to stay calm, the process is working, the count is being completed and we'll know very soon."

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