[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkSUE7esjG8?rel=0&w=525&h=330]

Watch that creepy video in which CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who is gay, interviews Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. This was part of an interview about the Orlando killing, but in the five minute clip above, Cooper grills her about her past opposition to same-sex marriage.

One can understand why gay people in Florida do not hold Bondi in esteem, and Bondi does not exactly cover herself in glory defending her actions. But he lays into her for five long minutes. What this has to do with the AG’s office’s response to the Orlando massacre is beyond me. Cooper is grandstanding, making this weirdly personal, even obsessive. There is nothing that Bondi can say that will satisfy him, other than, “I repent, please forgive me for my apostasy.”

Reader Edward Hamilton noticed the same thing I did:

The most telling moment is where Cooper castigates her for Tweeting insufficiently frequently about gay pride. Insufficient Tweeting! How can she even look herself in the mirror each morning, with so much blood on her hands? Luckily, she reassures him that she’s up to quota now on her rainbow Tweets.

Shorter version: Here’s a pinch of incense, here’s the bust of Caesar. You know what you have to do.

Cooper’s moral preening in this interview is one of the most unprofessional things I’ve ever seen a journalist do.