Anderson Cooper to Rep. Labrador: CNN isn't Fox News, MSNBC

CNN's Anderson Cooper got testy with Rep. Raul Labrador Monday night, telling the Idaho Republican that on CNN he wasn't going to get softball question like he might on Fox News.

While going back and forth over why Republicans won't just bring up a clean continuing resolution for a vote, Labrador challenged Cooper saying that when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, the media never asked her to bring up Republican prerogatives and accused Cooper of not liking the fact that Republicans are in control of the House.

"I don't have a stake in this, I'm not voting on --" Cooper said.

"You seem to be," Labrador shot back.

And then Cooper launched into a short lecture about "real" journalism:

“This is the way it works in journalism. When you’re not on Fox News, you get contentious interviews. When you’re not on MSNBC and a liberal, you get contentious interviews. My job is to ask you questions that are different than you think,” Cooper said.

"I've had contentious interviews..." Labrador tried to interject.

"Just as my next guest, who is a Democrat, I'm going to ask the same kind of questions that push back on their side, that's what a journalist does. I'm not taking the side of the democrats here, and in a minute here you will see I'm not taking the side of the Republicans," Cooper said.

Cooper's next guest was Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) who he challenged asking why Democrats seemed so unwilling to yield any ground.

"What harm could be done if the President just brings Speaker Boehner into the White House and tries to forge some sort of a path forward, just makes a deal, compromise requires both sides and Republicans are saying, look, we're willing to compromise now," Cooper said.

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.