After it aired on CNN Thursday evening, Anderson Cooper’s description of Donald Trump as a “an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over†inspired a backlash from people who rightfully pointed out that, considering the president is currently attempting to overturn the outcome of a national election, jokes about Trump’s weight both miss the point (who’s ever seen an obese turtle?) and needlessly insult those of us who are fat but not currently working to sabotage democracy. This weekend, the CNN anchor said he now “regrets†blurting out the extremely specific insult on live TV.
While being interviewed by Cooper on Saturday, onetime presidential hopeful Andrew Yang called back to the joke when discussing the last few days of postelection madness. “I’m happy to say, it seems like Trump is going to be, in your words, an obese turtle on his back, just flailing around, Anderson,†said Yang. Before moving on, Cooper attempted to walk back his comment. “By the way, I should say, I regret using those words, because that’s not the person I really want to be,†he said, according to Deadline. “It was in the heat of the moment, and I regret it.â€