CNN host Michael Smerconish pressed Original Sin co-author Alex Thompson on Saturday about a viral excerpt from the book claiming former Vice President Kamala Harris privately called Anderson Cooper a “motherfucker.”

The comment allegedly followed a tense June 2024 interview in which Cooper repeatedly questioned Harris about then-President Joe Biden’s cognitive health after his debate with Donald Trump.

The excerpt, which appears in Original Sin by Thompson and CNN’s Jake Tapper, claims that Harris told colleagues, “This motherfucker doesn’t treat me like the damn vice president of the United States.”

The line does not appear in quotation marks in the book, leading Smerconish to press Thompson on Saturday as to whether it was a direct quote or if Harris was paraphrased.

“I’m being real persnickety now,” Smerconish said after showing the excerpt. “But there are not quotation marks around that in the book. Is that a direct quote?”

Thompson replied that he believed the line was a verbatim quote from Harris:

I will go back to my copy, but my understanding is that it is, that she was incredibly frustrated with Anderson Cooper asking the same question over and over again. Which Anderson Cooper, this was the night of the debate, Anderson was like, have you ever seen him act that way behind the scenes? Because if the Vice President of the United States had seen the president act that way on, you know, behind the scenes as he acted on the debate stage and said nothing, I think it would have been incredibly indicting. But Kamala Harris, I can tell you, 100% was infuriated after that interview.

Original Sin documents the alleged turmoil surrounding Biden’s deteriorating mental state and efforts by those closest to him to hide it from the public.

The passage cited by Smerconish Saturday reads:

After the interview, Harris was visibly angry with Cooper. He had been asking the questions the nation had been wondering, but she took it personally.

This motherfucker doesn’t treat me like the damn vice president of the United States, she said to colleagues. I thought we were better than that.

As Smerconish points out, it is noticeable in that excerpt that there are no quotes around the phrases attributed to Harris.

Here’s the full transcript of the clip:

SMERCONISH: Relative to Vice President Kamala Harris, she has an interview with Anderson Cooper post-debate. You write about this in the book. By the way, I’ve got to do an ‘Eats, Shoots, and Leaves’ if you remember the book, and the importance of punctuation. I’ve gotta do an ‘Eats, Shoots, and Leaves’ analysis of one graph of your book, Alex, and it comes on page 290, and it’s getting a lot of attention today.

‘This M F-er doesn’t treat me like the damn Vice President of the United States, she said to colleagues, I thought we were better than that.’

I’m being real persnickety now, but there are not quotation marks around that in the book. Is that a direct quote?

THOMPSON: I will go back to my copy, but my understanding is that it is, that she was incredibly frustrated with Anderson Cooper asking the same question over and over again. Which Anderson Cooper, this was the night of the debate, Anderson was like, have you ever seen him act that way behind the scenes? Because if the Vice President of the United States had seen the president act that way on, you know, behind the scenes as he acted on the debate stage and said nothing, I think it would have been incredibly indicting. But Kamala Harris, I can tell you, 100% was infuriated after that interview

Watch above via CNN.

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