Anderson Cooper cuts off Rick Santorum after he said businesses didn't board up their storefronts 'to keep Donald Trump supporters from looting'

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

• Anderson Cooper dug into CNN contributor Rick Santorum after the former senator suggested that businesses aren't boarding up their storefronts to "to keep Donald Trump supporters from looting."
• "Where is the real threat here?" Santorum said during the panel Wednesday. "I don't see any Republicans, I don't see any people storming around, burning buildings, and crashing through storefronts."
• Cooper chimed in on Santorum's comment regarding the buildings, saying that he assumed Santorum was comparing possible protests and violence in light of the election to the unrest that ensued amid peaceful protests during the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year.
• The CNN anchor asked Santorum if he was concerned by the caravans of Trump supporters, some of whom were armed, blocking streets and highways in California, New Jersey, and New York.
• Santorum said he wasn't scared of "any armed people," to which Cooper said, "As a white Republican, you're not scared of armed white Trump supporters wandering around cities they don't live in."
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CNN anchor Anderson Cooper shut down CNN's GOP contributor Rick Santorum after he suggested that businesses didn't board up their storefronts "to keep Trump supporters from looting."

"They boarded up businesses in New York City, not to keep Donald Trump supporters from looting, okay?" Santorum, a former Republican senator for Pennsylvania, said during a CNN panel Wednesday.

CNN commentator Van Jones replied saying Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden "is not stoking" that behavior and said he thinks President Donald Trump is egging on his own supporters.

"Where is the real threat here?" Santorum responded. "I don't see any Republicans, I don't see any people storming around, burning buildings, and crashing through storefronts."

Some buildings in various US cities were boarded up ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, as Americans braced for the results of the 2020 election.

As the race stretched into Wednesday and then Thursday, neither Trump nor Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had reached the 270 electoral votes needed for victory, as states continue to count the remaining votes.

Cooper chimed in on Santorum's comment regarding the buildings, saying that he assumed Santorum was comparing possible protests and violence in light of the election to the unrest that ensued amid peaceful protests during the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year.

The CNN anchor asked Santorum if he was concerned by the caravans of Trump supporters blocking streets and highways in California, New Jersey, and New York, correcting the former senator who claimed they weren't in Manhattan.

Santorum said he wasn't scared of "any armed people," to which Cooper said, "As a white Republican, you're not scared of armed white Trump supporters wandering around cities they don't live in."

Cooper also said the president "likes it when they show up in the Michigan Statehouse," alluding to the armed anti-lockdown demonstrators in Michigan who stormed the Capitol to protest state Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's COVID-19 restrictions.

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