Anderson Cooper Talks To David Letterman About Egypt Attack (VIDEO)

Anderson Cooper was on David Letterman's "Late Show" on Wednesday, and he talked about being attacked in Egypt last week.

"I don't recommend it," he told Letterman. "I'd never been punched in the head before."

Cooper continued his recent pattern of very tough talk about the government of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. He said the regime has been "continuously lying" to people throughout the uprising, that the people who attacked him were a group of "thugs" organized by the government, and that the Egyptian people are simply demanding "basic rights" from a "dictator."

Cooper also revealed that his limited Arabic got the better of him during the attack. He thought he was saying "peace" to his attackers, but it turned out he was actually using the Arabic term for "God willing." He called the slip "sort of stupid."

Letterman asked Cooper if he thought he'd been targeted because of his fame. Cooper said he didn't think his attackers "particularly" knew who he was. Letterman pointed out that, even so, Cooper has a distinctive look about him. "You...just standing on a corner, call attention to yourself," he said.

"Yes, I'm like a newt who's emerged from underneath a rock," Cooper joked back. "'Look for the pale, skinny, gray-haired man.' Not too hard to identify."

WATCH:

Comments

[SnapShots]

03:31 PM on 02/13/2011

He should have been saying "Bas!" to the people hitting him. He'll never make that mistake again.

[Tulka2]

01:29 AM on 02/11/2011

Anderson Cooper's mug is more recognizable than Micky Mouse's.   He cannot be sent into violent situations because it is dangerous for his support people.  He will always be welcome at infrastructure disasters.  I am not putting him down.  He is just too well known to walk amongst thugs.

[esem]

01:12 AM on 02/11/2011

Funny, with the footage being repeated and repeated all over again by CNN, one can never hear Cooper saying "Inshallah." He must be muttering it to himself. Glad he got home safe though. I believe Cooper has his honorable moments but statements like this, and milking his "journalist" moments for ratings are fast eroding his credibilty. He is acting like one of the celebrities he is so fond of now. AC, you gotta choose what you wanna be now --- journalist or celebrity news person? Either way is ok, but don't pretend to be the former, and insist that you are not pretending. Your fans will love you just the same, whatever it is you wanna be. Hope you keep yourself honest first before you demand it from others.

[Numskll]

10:49 AM on 02/11/2011

You can in fact hear him saying "inshallah," at around 2:03 in the linked video
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/anderson-cooper-egypt-attack-video_n_817794.html

[AppealforJustice2010]

10:07 PM on 02/10/2011

Seriously Anderson, you are one sexy man and this is from a very picky woman

[Matt12]

09:45 PM on 02/10/2011

the hair!! , oh, the hair!!

[LightShadow62]

09:30 PM on 02/10/2011

I have a perfect title for an Anderson Cooper book:

Anderson Cooper; Disaster Tourist!

[yill danniel]

08:07 PM on 02/10/2011

Wow....... you survived a punch, should we give you a medal?

[Wanda Simmons]

06:01 PM on 02/10/2011

Fox repoters were also attacked my Egyptian government operatives. Just please explain why it is not an important story on Fox News.

The supression of FAIR an BALALANCED not important? Relevant?

The families of these Fox reporters happy with the lack of priority of this info?

[pierre F Lherisson]

05:53 PM on 02/10/2011

Anderson Cooper should write a book about Haiti and Egypt during his interlude in the US. That will offset the traumatic experience he had in Egypt.

[joedawg88]

05:00 PM on 02/10/2011

I don't understand the AC haters. What's their beef?

[drzoon]

05:13 PM on 02/10/2011

EXACTLY!

[themainpoint]

05:42 PM on 02/10/2011

I hate nobody, but have no respect for Cooper and his friends who work for corporate owned news.

On big tax tax $ transfers to the few, and things like war, CNN facts and tough talk will come only AFTER it's too late for the people to do anything.

e.g. We hear about the housing bubble while it's bursting & trillions are already well on the way to the bank accounts of a few who committed epic fraud. Yet those who were warning about it while there was still time to turn it around were shut out of the conversation.

So note the TIMING of information and when the focus of the news is really on an issue.

They do get tough and "compassionate" on smaller issues --or problems in OTHER countries. But they have to maintain some credibilty (every good swindle must contain some truth)

Without a daily diet of corporate spin, the US may well have stayed out of a war based upon lies, prevented a housing bubble that melted down millions of jobs, etc.

FACT: corporate owned news is for the profits and political agendas of their advertisers and owners..

We hear about the US propping up brutal dictators with our tax $ in places like Egypt only AFTER there is such a massive riot in the country that the cat is out of the bag. Ironic to hear CNN rail against emergency laws in Egypt (think Patriot Act) and how a few take everything.

[4truthwriter]

04:31 PM on 02/10/2011

Here is a good example of ambiguous message. Anderson did a good job explaining but described the situation as "10s of thousands protesters and a handful of Thugs supported by Mubarak" . Well that may be true but the rest of the equation is the 78 MILLION citizen of Egypt not in the square that the gov't has responsibility to protect against mob rule by a very minority. do you see the total picture now?

Also an assumption that because the thugs left they were Mubarak. If it was contrived by protestor they would have also gone. I believe the Army was in greater presence separating the groups also. If the protesters needed sensation headline ,acting as thugs and hurting a newsperson would have bee the way. You see that is why Mobs should not make decision on gov't. A vote is representative , honest if monitored by the international community , and reliable. Mubarak, for good or bad, was elected. It is not a regime, it is not a dictatorship. it is an elected gov't under martial law following an assassination.

[drzoon]

04:56 PM on 02/10/2011

he was not elected. come one.... we all know that those elections are RIGGED. and the assassination was 28 YEARS AGO! he couldn't get it together a little faster that that?

HA!

[Barbara Hill Bissonnette]

06:41 PM on 02/10/2011

Please, please do some reading.

[Steve915]

04:27 PM on 02/10/2011

Where was all this passion for The People when George Bush was in office??

Is Democracy somehow easier to see when it's breaking out 7,000 miles away??

[KRYSTY]

04:40 PM on 02/10/2011

Cnn is now part of the tea party. They pretend to care about America, but it's about their own agenda.

[MH-Vet]

04:26 PM on 02/10/2011

"Reporter" interviewing another Reporter......that's real entertainment!

[drzoon]

04:57 PM on 02/10/2011

dave is a "reporter"?

you don't have a clue what a "reporter" is

[1234j]

08:26 AM on 02/11/2011

Hello? Letterman's not a reporter.

[KillgoreTrout43]

04:17 PM on 02/10/2011

peach post;

"Anderson Cooper is a good reporter; it's CNN that lacks credibilit­y. The choice to appear on David Letterman is a poor one."

Why?

[keepinitreal77]

05:09 PM on 02/10/2011

at least it wasnt the repulsive leno!

[xlntcat]

05:31 PM on 02/10/2011

Anderson was a good reporter and his own early work as a self-financed, free lance war correspondent makes his squeamishness in Egypt hard to believe.   One or the other has to be inauthentic.  My money is that he is letting the Tea Bagger channel ruin him.

[ladyvader]

10:09 PM on 02/10/2011

Maybe working for CNN made him soft. My problem with Cooper is he put himself into the story. A good reporter will never ever do that.

[KillgoreTrout43]

04:14 PM on 02/10/2011

flight;

He was answering a question that the host of the show had asked.