‘Oh’: Awkward moment CNN host Anderson Cooper misgenders audience member

CNN host Anderson Cooper has been called out for an “awkward” moment after he mistakenly misgendered a civil rights lawyer on live TV.

CNN host Anderson Cooper has accidentally misgendered a civil rights lawyer on live TV during a town hall event for Bernie Sanders.

The awkward moment occurred when Cooper was introducing Democrat Grace Thomas who was about to ask the Vermont senator an audience question at Wednesday’s event.

“I want to introduce Grace Thomas, she’s a local civil rights lawyer, she’s a Democrat, Grace?” Cooper said, gesturing to Thomas in the audience.

Correcting the host, Thomas quickly noted: “It’s they/them pronouns, actually”.

“Oh,” Cooper responded before Thomas proceeded to ask their question about why young men of different demographics are turning away from the Democratic Party.

The awkward moment occurred when Cooper was introducing Thomas. Picture: CNN

Thomas quickly corrected the host before asking their question. Picture: CNN

The mistake has since gone viral on social media, where some crtiticised the CNN host for not using the correct pronouns.

“This was so awkward,” one person wrote on X.

“Misgendering on live TV isn’t just a mistake -it’s a failure to respect someone’s identity,” one person wrote.

“He didn’t even apologise! These people don’t take it seriously!” said another.

Trump supporters also weighed in on the mishap.

“Calling for Anderson Cooper’s immediate resignation for believing what his eyes were telling him he saw. Bigot,” said American swimmer Riley Gaines, who publicly thanked President Donald Trump for signing an executive order banning biological men from competing in women’s sports earlier this year.

‘Democrats have not been aggressive’

After the mistake, Mr Sanders thanked Thomas for their question before pointing out Democrats’ failure to address the needs of the working class.

“It is no great secret that in America, people have strongly different points of view right? On abortion, for example, I believe very much that women have a right to control their own bodies, people disagree with me. I believe, we’ve got to combat homophobia, I believe in gay marriage,” he said.

“But you know what Grace, on many economic issues there is widespread agreement. And the failure of the Democratic Party in my view, has been they have not been aggressive in standing up for the powerful corporate interests in laying out an agenda and implementing an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class,” Mr Sanders added, before launching into a lengthy response about healthcare, in which he asked the audience questions.

Bernie Sanders thanked Thomas for their question. Picture: CNN

Droves of young men turn to Trump

The 2024 US election saw droves of men, particularly young men, vote for President Donald Trump, whose campaign capitalised on youth masculinity and tapped into interests such as fighting sports and cryptocurrency.

According to exit polling by NBC, 54 per cent of men voted for the Republican, a slight increase from the 51 per cent that supported him in 2020.

But what raised eyebrows was among younger voters aged 18-29, where 49 per cent of men voted for Mr Trump, shattering previous images of young people generally leaning left.

Meanwhile, women under 29 had a massive 61-37 Harris-Trump split.

“There is a lot of latent sexism in the US electorate, male and female members alike,” Tammy Vigil, an associate professor of media science at the University of Boston, told AFP last year.

“Trump’s campaign gave people permission to indulge their worst impulses and embrace divisiveness of many sorts.”

Donald Trump captured the vote of 54 per cent of men. Picture: Pool/AP

Among Black men under 45, about three out of 10 voted for Mr Trump – double the rate of the 2020 vote and blowing yet another hole in the Democrats’ traditional base.

54 per cent of Latino men also voted for the President – a whopping 18 percentage point gain for Republicans compared to 2020.

“Black and Latino men could possibly overlook the racism of the Trump campaign because Trump appealed to their sense of machismo,” Ms Vigil said.

Kamala Harris voter Spencer Thomas said the economy was on the mind of many of his peers who voted for Trump.

“They focused more on the economic policies and different things of that nature, rather than abortion rights,” said the student at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington.

During his campaign, the President also appeared on male-dominated podcasts, including the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where listeners overwhelmingly skew young and male.

Kathleen Dolan, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, said Mr Trump’s appearance on Rogan’s podcast “was about trying to motivate young men to turn out”.

“The rest of his performance of masculinity was to appeal to his base, women and men, who like him because they think he is ‘tough’ and a ‘leader’ and clearly aren’t offended by the things he says,” she told AFP.

– With AFP