CNN anchor Anderson Cooper slammed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell Tuesday in an absolutely off-the-rails interview, calling the pro-Trump businessman a “snake oil salesman” repeatedly for paddling an unproven and potentially dangerous supplement as a ” miracle “cure for the coronavirus.
Lindell, best known for his one-on-one ads on Fox News and over-the-top Trump sycophancy, was brought in to discuss the extract he recently promoted to President Donald Trump as a cure for COVID-19.
At a meeting in July, Lindell and HUD secretary Ben Carson sold Trump to an extract of the plant oleander, which is highly toxic. Lindell said Trump was “enthusiastic” about the extract and wanted the FDA to approve it.
Cooper began the highly controversial and at the same time unhinged discussion by noting that Lindell not only has no medical or scientific background, but that the pillow manufacturer also has a financial interest in a company that would benefit from the supplement being widely sold.
“Morality, is that right?” Cooper questioned him out loud, asking Lindell to claim that studies have shown the effectiveness of the supplement and “the FDA has got them all.”
‘Why aren’t they public there? Why are they not peer-reviewed? “Cooper pressed on.
Lindell, meanwhile, acknowledged that although he is not a doctor, he has conducted his own ‘study’ on thousands of people showing that it is completely safe, adding that it is “the miracle of all time.”
The conversation soon broke off because the CNN anchor repeatedly pointed out that Lindell was not an expert and that he could not cite legitimate studies on the benefits of the extract.
“You have no medical background,” Cooper exclaimed when Lindell objected. ‘You’re not a scientist. A man called in April and said he had this product. You are now on the board and will earn money from the sale of this product. ”
“The reason he reached out to you is because you have the ear of the president and can get a meeting with the president and you stand to earn money from it,” the veteran newsman added. “How do you sleep at night ?!”
Lindell, meanwhile, claimed that Cooper was simply “misunderstood” because the media was “trying to remove this great cure” from the American people, which ultimately resulted in the CNN host shouting out Lindell’s harmful past.
“How are you other than a seller of a snake oil?” Cooper yelled. “No medical background. No research. Do not test in animals or humans. ”
Cooper then brought up Lindell’s F rating with the Better Business Bureau and how the MyPillow boss agreed to settle for a million dollars over misleading marketing and false claims about his products.
“That’s not a great track record for honesty, sir,” snorted Cooper.
Lindell, meanwhile, insisted he only had a bad BBB rating and was hit with lawsuits because of his passionate support for Trump. When Cooper called him a ‘snake oil seller’ again, Lindell responded by saying he was “doing what Jesus did to me.”
“Jesus wants you to promote remedies that have never been tested?” Cooper shoots back.
‘Ask yourself, why would I ruin my reputation?’ Lindell opposite.
“Money,” replied the anchor. “You do not have a great reputation.”
For the next 15-plus minutes, the two would continue to go the same way over and over again, eventually ending up with Cooper repeating for his viewers Lindell’s lack of references and shy background.
“Just in the summation, you have to have medical background,” Cooper said. “You have no scientific background at all. You have a financial interest in this business. You do not know it – you can not give details about a supposed study of 1,000 people that you have probably read, but you remember nothing about it, not a single detail other than 1000 people. “
“This is nowhere to be tested outside of one lab in a test tube,” he continued. “Never tested in animals, never peer reviewed, studied, published – studied in humans, never studied against COVID-19, no peer reviewed, no published studies and yet you say that this is the cure for COVID … And you have display a history of ads for which you had to make massive deposits because they were misleading testimonies. ‘
Lindell, meanwhile, reiterated that the supplement has undergone two phases of research and the FDA has the results before praising Trump as “the greatest president the country has ever seen.” He went on to claim “this is not a political thing as a sum of money” for him, and asked Cooper to get a definite word.
“Right. Your track record says otherwise,” shrugged the anchor.
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