'It's still frankly just bulls---': Anderson Cooper calls out former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for claiming he's a 'political prisoner'

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'It's still frankly just bulls---': Anderson Cooper calls out former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for claiming he's a 'political prisoner'
Anderson Cooper Rod Blagojevich CNN interview
  • Anderson Cooper went after former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich after he said he was willing to work on criminal justice reform after being pardoned by Trump.
  • The ex-governor appeared on the CNN segment on Friday, where he claimed he was a victim of a corrupt criminal justice system.
  • Blagojevich was serving a 14-year sentence after being found guilty for corruption for attempting to sell the former President Barack Obama's vacant US Senate seat. He was convicted on 17 corruption-related charges in 2011.
  • "You're creating a whole new alternate universe of facts," Cooper said during the interview. "And that may be big in politics today, but it's still frankly just bulls---."
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper skewered former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for claiming he is a "political prisoner."

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Blagojevich appeared on CNN on Friday, where he claimed he was a victim of a corrupt criminal justice system that led to his time in prison.

"If you were to ask Nelson Mandela whether he thought the process was fair back in the early '60s in South Africa, he would say what I'm saying today," the ex-governor said on the news segment.

Cooper, who appeared visibly heated in response to Blagojevich's responses, called him out for not granting clemency to people who asked for it when he was governor.

"What's sad is that you actually hadn't learned that when you mattered, when you actually were the governor," Cooper said. "You talk about working for criminal justice reform? There's a lot of people in Chicago, there's a lot of people in Illinois who actually spit up when you say that."

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"Because when you were actually in power, when you were actually governor and you could've helped thousands of people with clemency cases, you blew it off," he added.

Blagojevich was serving a 14-year sentence after being found guilty of corruption for attempting to sell the former President Barack Obama's vacant US Senate seat. He was convicted on 17 corruption-related charges in 2011.

President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of the former Illinois governor on Tuesday, after he served eight years in federal prison.

"You're besmirching prosecutors ... and prosecutors are important in our system, and you're going after the very basis of our justice system, which has plenty of problems," Cooper said during the interview. "You do have an obligation to at least admit what you did wrong, and you refuse to do that."

"You're creating a whole new alternate universe of facts," Cooper continued. "And that may be big in politics today, but it's still frankly just bulls---."

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Watch the full interview here:

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