There was a bit of drama on social media this morning involving the face of CNN.
Anderson Cooper claims his verified Twitter account was hacked this morning. The account had sent a response to the below tweet from Pres. Trump concerning the outcome of yesterday’s Alabama senate special election.
The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!
Advertisement— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
The response from Cooper’s verified account: “Oh really? You endorsed him you tool! Pathetic loser.”
The tweet has since been deleted.
CNN PR addressed the matter early this morning.
This morning someone gained access to the handle @andersoncooper and replied to POTUS. We’re working with Twitter to secure the account.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) December 13, 2017
Cooper addressed the matter from the same verified account that sent out the original tweet.
just woke up to find out someone gained access to my twitter account. i have not sent a tweet in days or replied to any tweets. We are looking into how this happened.
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) December 13, 2017
This transpired the morning after Democrat Doug Jones earned an upset victory over the Republican candidate Roy Moore in the special election to become U.S. senator for Alabama. Jones will take over the seat vacated by former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions when he was named Attorney General.
No Democrat had won an Alabama race since Richard Shelby in 1992. Shelby switched to the Republican party two years later, and is presently a U.S. senator for Alabama.
*Update: CNN’s statement:
Geolocation tools confirm that the tweet in question was not sent from Anderson Cooper’s phone. Anderson was in Washington, and we have proof the tweet was sent from New York, from a phone belonging to his assistant. His assistant inadvertently left his phone unlocked and unattended at the gym early this morning, and someone took the phone and sent the tweet. His assistant, who has worked with Anderson for more than a decade, is the only other person with access to Anderson’s Twitter account.