About a third of Americans get their news on YouTube, and some of them watch Brett Cooper.
The 24-year-old has captured the attention of fans as a host The Brett Cooper Showwhere she offers mostly conservative reactions to news events. In recent weeks, she has sometimes praised President Trump and also, crucially, criticized him. She also exchanged online messages with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over whether to call influencer Nick Fuentes a “Nazi.”
Cooper is part of a constellation of personalities who interpret the news for their followers. She first gained attention as a UCLA student criticizing the COVID lockdown. She later joined the conservative news site Daily Wire and launched her own separate program in January.
She spoke to NPR in a video interview, which you can watch above or on YouTube. Below are some highlights.
She says people watch shows like hers for the hosts, not the ideology.
“My job is just to talk to people,” she said. “I don’t really consider myself a newscaster.” While creating the show, she experimented with interviews, but ultimately settled on talking directly to the camera.
Although her politics are mostly populist or conservative and generally pro-Trump, she says viewers come The Brett Cooper Show for Brett Cooper. She happily talks about Justin Bieber or Blake Lively, as well as political news. She believes she started with a predominantly male audience, but has worked to attract women by sharing more about her engagement, wedding and, most recently, becoming a parent.
She says she is traditional, but not a “trade wife.”
“My views on family are definitely more traditional,” Cooper said, but “tradwife has become an Internet aesthetic. It became a trend… sunny dresses, frolicking in the fields, churning butter, making sourdough. And it has a lot less to do with real values… and more to do with posturing.”
It reflects divisions within Trump's coalition
Cooper spoke out after Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham that the United States needs highly skilled immigrants because Americans lack the necessary talent. This was an unusual position for a president, and Cooper disagreed.
“I think my disappointment and concern were shared by my audience and people like me,” she said. “That's the worst thing a president can say.”
She also criticized Trump for dismissing consumer concerns about high prices and availability as a hoax to the Democratic Party.
More recently, she praised the president for promising to crack down on Afghan refugees and other immigrant groups: “I think it's safe to say that both illegal and legal immigration are actually flooding our country,” she said on her show.
She defends her stance against Nick Fuentes
Cooper got into an online fight with Senator Ted Cruz, who criticized anti-Semitism in the Republican Party. Cruz called activist Nick Fuentes a Nazi. Cooper said Cruz misused the label.
In an interview with NPR, she said Fuentes had a right to speak and referred to the “Streisand effect,” suggesting that criticizing Fuentes would simply bring more attention to him.
“For Gen Z, people on both sides of the aisle need to understand that the more you tell my generation not to watch something, not to study something, not to listen to something, that something is bad or censors someone, we will seek out that content,” she said.
When asked if she agreed with Fuentes' assertion that “Jewish gangsters” control the country, Cooper said, “Not really,” although she added, “I'm concerned about Israel's influence on our country.”
She said she didn't “agree with Nick Fuentes on everything” but mostly didn't criticize him. “I don’t think I need to sit here and judge anyone in any way.”
Ultimately, she says she makes her own decision.
Cooper says politicians have called her to get her opinion on what young people think, but she doesn't want politicians to influence her too much.
“I want my audience to know that if you come to see the Brett Cooper show, they won't have a senator in their ear saying, 'Hey, this is my opinion, would you mind sharing it?' – she said. “But if I see what’s going on on X, Ted Cruz is saying something, I’m going to want to talk about it.”
The broadcast version of this interview was produced by Taylor Haney and edited by Adam Byrne. The digital version was produced by Majd Al-Wahidi.
