Did Pam Bondi Feel ‘Sandbagged’ by Anderson Cooper?

By Chris Ariens 

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is firing back at Anderson Cooper following their contentious live interview on CNN yesterday.

“We thought Anderson Cooper had a huge audience to help people, not creating more anger and havoc and hatred,” Bondi said. “Yesterday was about unity.”

During the interview, Cooper challenged Bondi’s record with the LGBT community in Florida. “I have never really seen you talk about gays and lesbians and transgender people in a positive way until now,” Cooper said. “I’m telling you what people have been telling me to ask you: Moving forward, do you see yourself as being a vocal champion for gay and lesbian citizens in the state?”

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“The only thing I’m championing are human beings whose lives were lost to terror,” Bondi shot back.

“I was extremely disappointed in that,” Bondi told WOR radio hosts Len Berman and Todd Schnitt this morning. “I’ve been getting horrible hatred emails and texts now based on Anderson’s story. He had a real opportunity to bring our country together.”

Bondi also said she reached out to CNN becuase the clip that was posted on CNN.com edited out the discussion about the work her department is doing cracking down on scams.

“When he posted the clip he cut out the entire first portion. As of last night we were still going ’round and ’round with them to pull it, or post it in its entirety,” she said.

In fact, the full interview, which included the discussion about donation scams, was posted on CNN.com around 11 p.m. last night.

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