‘How do you sleep at night?’: Anderson Cooper thrashes MyPillow CEO for touting plant extract as virus treatment

Cooper likened Lindell to a “snake oil salesman” and asked, “How do you sleep at night?” Watch below:

At one point in the interview, Lindell told Cooper, “You’re in my prayers,” and accused the CNN anchor of “calling [him] names.”

Lindell met with President Trump in July to discuss the potential use of oleandrin and arranged for a biopharmaceuticals executive whose company makes it to get a White House meeting, The Washington Post reported last week; Lindell later joined the company’s board. When asked about the extract on Monday, Trump said, “We’ll look at it.” (Lindell serves as the Minnesota chairman for the president’s reelection campaign.)

The interview started off contentiously. “You don’t have a medical background,” Cooper said. “You’re not a scientist. Yet you’re claiming this substance, which has not been studied in any meaningful way, can cure covid. And you have a financial stake in the company. You would profit from it if this is being sold widely. Morally, is that right?”

Lindell said he was told to bring potential therapeutics to the White House’s coronavirus task force and recommended the drug after receiving a call from someone who said “he had an answer to the virus,” which Lindell passed along to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, who is a member of the task force.

“You are telling people that this cures covid,” Cooper charged. “You have no studies to prove it.”

Lindell said he’s been taking oleandrin since April, along with over 100 friends and family members. “This thing works,” he said. “It’s the miracle of all time. … It saved my family and friends’ lives.”

In response to Cooper’s skepticism about the compound, Lindell said that Cooper “misconstrued because the media is trying to take away this medical cure that works for everybody.”

Cooper also pressed Lindell on controversies that his company, MyPillow, has faced, including a 2016 class-action settlement over a false advertising claim.

“I guarantee I would not be taking medical advice from you, sir,” Cooper said. “I can promise you that. … I appreciate you being on. Honestly, I just think it’s shameful what you’re doing.”

The interview quickly lit up Twitter, with ample criticism lobbed at Lindell for his comments, and, to a lesser degree, to CNN for hosting Lindell for an interview. “The question is why CNN is giving this guy airtime,” one user wrote.

Lindell’s claims about oleandrin were quickly rebutted by Cooper’s next guest, Jake Deutsch, an emergency room physician who called the MyPillow CEO’s comments “extremely scary.”

“We’re really talking about a highly toxic substance,” Deutsch said. “A small amount of consumption of this plant can be fatal. … It’s more likely that somebody would die from taking oleander than from covid.”

On Tuesday night, Lindell reflected on the appearance in an email to The Post. “I am grateful that I was able to speak the truth to the people of our country on CNN,” he said. “I expected tough questions and to be attacked, but I am grateful that Mr. Cooper had me on.”