Anderson Cooper blasts Republican guest who claims he knows why Donald Trump makes wild remarks

Anderson Cooper cursed on air a Republican lawmaker who claimed Donald Trump made outlandish statements because he was a New Yorker.

The CNN host’s interview with former California Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado quickly went off the rails on Wednesday.

Trump administration military chiefs have sharply criticized the former president over his conduct while in the top job and whether he was fit to serve a second term.

They included his chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, who claimed he had made insulting comments about soldiers, and then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who called him “a fascist to the core.”

Maldonado claimed that military figures like them thought Trump was a good president when they worked with him and only criticized him afterwards.

“A lot of these people, Anderson, when they work for him, he’s a good guy,” he said, even though none of them ever said it.

“They’re only going to go after President Trump after he leaves, or they’re fired, one of the two.”

This sparked a fierce argument with Cooper and his other guest, Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, who asked Maldonado if Trump was a fascist.

Maldonado denied this, so Bernstein rephrased his question to ask, “Does he say fascist things?”

He’s a New Yorker. ‘He’s a fighter, he’s a leader,’ Maldonado responded, making Cooper angry.

‘You’re from California. The Central Park Five children were actually New Yorkers,” Cooper said.

“So the idea that Donald Trump is a New Yorker and this is what New Yorkers say is nonsense.”

The Central Park Five were five black teenagers wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in 1989, who were eventually exonerated by DNA in 2002.

‘I’m from California and we look at New York as you know, they are fighters. They are strong. They tell it like it is. They will say it out loud,’ Maldonado insisted.

Cooper responded, “But that’s a comic.” I mean, I repeat, there are eight million people in the city.

Maldonado also claimed during the discussion that Trump had not changed, so it was the military leaders who altered their tone.

‘They got to work to help America, to help President Trump, and suddenly they have a disagreement. They keep going. And he is also a “fascist,” he said.

Cooper argued that they likely went to work for Trump (or in Milley’s case were simply promoted to the position) so they could temper Trump’s worst impulses.

“So if you think General Milley, the highly decorated General Kelly, who was the chief of staff, whose son died serving this country, you think they’re making things up,” he said.

Maldonado denied that was his point, or that he was accusing them of lying.

‘Donald Trump in 2016, when he ran, you know, who he was, you know who he is. That’s what it is. “Trump is never going to change,” he said.

Milley took on Trump in Bob Woodward’s book War, warning that he planned to use the military against his political opponents.

‘He is the most dangerous person who has ever lived. I was suspicious when I told you about his mental deterioration and so on, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. “Now he is the most dangerous person for this country,” he said.

Milley recalled in the book how Trump wanted to court generals who spoke out against him.

Kelly claimed Trump called decorated military veterans “stupid” and “losers” and refused to be seen with amputee military members because “it doesn’t seem right to me.”

He also described Trump as someone who “admires murderous autocrats and dictators.”