CNN’s Anderson Cooper ruthlessly grilled one of Donald Trump’s backers about the GOP nominee’s demeanor during a Friday segment, injecting editorial judgements about the GOP nominee and making an outrageous suggestion about his motives — just one week before Cooper is set to host the second presidential debate.

In a joint interview with Ana Navarro and Trump supporter Jeff Lord, Cooper brought up the controversy surrounding Trump’s string of tweets — published in the wee hours of Friday morning that began at 3:20 a.m.

“Would you want the president of the United States to be up at 4 a.m. encouraging people to go look for a sex tape?” Cooper said.

Cooper grilled Lord, a former White House associate political director under Ronald Reagan, on Friday about the appropriateness of Trump’s tweets.

“Is it presidential?” Cooper asked Lord, wondering if the tweets were “worthy of the office of president” and “worthy of somebody who would occupy the White House.”

When Lord did not directly answer the question and instead chose to emphasize the media’s collusion in toppling Trump, supporting Clinton, and making the Machado controversy an even bigger deal than it probably merited, Cooper pressed him even further.

[lz_third_party align=center includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odIGZNTuDWQ”]

“You do admit that it’s your candidate who’s kept this alive,” Cooper said. “This isn’t about collusion and media talk about this trying to tend the story. He has kept this alive.”

“Yes. Anderson, I do agree with that,” Lord responded. “I’m just suggesting that we may be playing under different rules here that none of us understand — with the possible exception of Donald Trump.”

But Cooper still wasn’t satisfied.

“Would you want the president of the United States to be up at 4 a.m. encouraging people to go look for a sex tape?” Cooper pressed.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

[lz_related_box id=”215202″]

“Yeah, if it’s worth looking for, Anderson,” Lord said, laughing.

Cooper responded, saying, “I don’t even know what that means.”

“Porn is popular. Maybe he’s tapping into the porn electorate. I get it. Maybe that is his brilliance,” the CNN anchor added. “But I still — the basic question to me is, is it the behavior of somebody who should occupy the White House? And it’s a question you won’t answer. It is either yes or no. It is either presidential behavior or not.”

The suggestion calls into questions whether Cooper can handle moderating a presidential debate without making such over-the-top editorializing comments.

Lord answered Cooper’s question, saying, “I think there is a different standard out there that we are not yet fully cognizant of in all of this. And the definition of what presidential is or is not, Anderson — and I would agree with you, if that’s what you want. Yes, no, it is not presidential by the old standards, but I am not sure those old standards apply any more.”