Anderson Cooper on GOP Debate: Personal Attacks 'Caught Us by Surprise' (VIDEO)

Anderson Cooper was the moderator, in name anyway, of the most recent Republican Debate, which got contentious and personal as Rick Perry took numerous shots at front-runner Mitt Romney. Cooper went on 'Good Day LA,' (weekdays, 7AM PT on Fox) and explained how the debate went from his perspective.

"It caught a lot of us by surprise, just the personal nature of some of the attacks," he said. "They're not children, it's not my job to jump in and say, 'Don't do the strategy that you want to do," he continued, perhaps pushing back on the criticism that he should have done more to step in-between some of the jabs being thrown.

Steve Edwards asked Cooper if he feared that any of the verbal jabs might become physical ones. "I didn't think they'd go that far," he said. The hand-on-shoulder action and finger-pointing was about as physical as a debate is likely to get.