On Christmas day, many on Twitter noticed that Democrat Mayor John Cooper of Nashville while responding to reporters had chuckled while discussing the explosion that authorities were calling 'intentional'. He told a local reporter that "they're gonna be super careful," and added, "and they're going to inspect everything and make sure that, you know, that's the only explosion that's gonna happen in Nashville today." It is then that we see Cooper chuckle as if making light of the event. This video went viral and was shared many times on Twitter since and everyone has begun to wonder why Cooper would chuckle while discussing a serious event. 

One Twitter user said, "Statement from our chuckling mayor regarding the attack on Music City today ⁦@JohnCooper4Nash⁩: “This is the only explosion that’s going to happen in Nashville today, ha ha, ha ha...” ⁦@seanhannity⁩ ⁦@DonaldJTrumpJr⁩ ⁦@WatchChad" to which Don Jr responded and wrote, "Ridiculous."

Another Twitter handle also posted the same video and wrote, "Why is Mayor John Cooper laughing when he says, “....make sure this is the only explosion that’s gonna happen in Nashville today.” Then he goes on to talk about broken water mains. What in the world. #NashvilleExplosion".

Many supporters of Cooper responded to this and one of them said, "Because people respond to stress/nervousness/fear in different ways. I actually laughed when my mother died, so although this is weird and appears callus, it's not." Another person however said, "Any mayor that finds humor in a situation like this, SHOULD NOT be MAYOR!"

 

 

Many also speculated about the explosion and its causes from what the mayor had revealed, but most found Cooper to be unempathetic. One wrote, "Not the attitude one would expect from an official whose town has just been bombed, is it?" Another added, "This guy is more than a little off. There was a car bomb in your city and you’re laughing!?!" One of the followers however pointed out that the clip that was shared was not the complete video and wrote, "He said something like “Police are looking around to be sure that this is going to be the only explosion in Nashville today” and then chuckled. I believe it was a nervous laugh also. This is actually not the full clip."

 

 

They further added, "If you read the closed captioning here, you can see that he was saying something about first responders checking the area even though the close captioning isn’t quite correct it; says exclusion, not explosion. Here’s a link to the clip." However, the support for the mayor was minimal, as many of them believed that he was taking the incident lightly. Another user added, "He obviously doesn't love his city. Look what he's done to it during covid." Another commented, "I remember a story about burst watermains during the counting of the illegal ballots. It seems that watermains are not safe with liberals around..."

 

 

The Nashville explosion that erupted in downtown early Christmas morning destroyed 41 buildings and left three injured. Authorities also informed that the explosion was deliberate and intentional and have found what they believe are human remains.