This event was a disaster for CNN and Donald Trump!
Trump’s defiance at the CNN town hall may scare off many voters — but not the GOP base. They love him!
Donald Trump agrees to a town hall meeting hosted by CNN. That is the network that Trump called the fake news channel. The switch to friendship between Trump and CNN shook many CNN viewers who have now say they won’t be watching any more. Initially I too said that I would not watch CNN as they have abandoned truth for viewership. I changed my mind before the town hall broadcast.
Before the town hall began, CNN faced heavy criticism for lending Trump its platform, with many critics suggesting that the network was prioritizing ratings above its commitment to the truth. The reason for viewing Trump was to learn if he had decided to start accepting reality. I was wrong. From the very beginning he repeated his claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Then went on to call the Carroll lawsuit a “witch hunt.”
While the audience at the town hall was all Trump fans the broadcast showed the world that Trump has not changed. His willingness to pardon and free those convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol tells all Americans what an elected Trump would be doing in a second term in office.
I’m glad I watched.
This report from POLITICO Playbook is worth the read.
CNN’s New Hampshire town hall with DONALD TRUMP last night may have done more to boost his chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination than anything that’s happened since the 2020 election.
Over and over again, a self-assured Trump lied and rewrote history. He claimed to have finished the border wall. (He didn’t.) He asserted that he’d been “exonerated” from accusations that he attempted to strong-arm Ukraine into digging up dirt on Biden. (He wasn’t.) He refused to apologize to MIKE PENCE for putting him in harm’s way on Jan. 6 and insisted that his ex-VP had the power to overturn the election. (He didn’t.) He called MICHAEL BYRD — the Black Capitol Police lieutenant who fatally shot ASHLI BABBITT while protecting lawmakers during the storming of the Capitol — a “thug.” (He isn’t.) He called Jan. 6 “a beautiful day.” (It wasn’t.) He defended his infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” comments. (Really?)
And the live studio audience — which seemed vocally pro-Trump, as if imported from Mar-a-Lago — ate it up. They cheered when he denied moderator KAITLAN COLLINS’ factual assertion that he took three hours to tell the Jan. 6 rioters to go home. They applauded when he called E. JEAN CARROLL — who one day earlier was awarded $5 million in damages from Trump for his sexual abuse and defamation of her — a “whack job.” They laughed when he called Collins “nasty” and questioned whether she understood what she was talking about.
To her credit, Collins tried to fact-check Trump in real time. She noted over and over again that the 2020 election was not “rigged,” and that judges — some of them appointed by Trump — had in fact tossed about 60 court cases alleging fraud. She balked when Trump claimed that under the Presidential Records Act, he had the right to take classified documents to his Florida resort. (He doesn’t.) She pushed back when he claimed that he never asked Georgia election officials to “find” him the exact number of votes needed to defeat Biden in Georgia. (He did, and it’s on tape.) She rejected his attempts to blame NANCY PELOSI for his supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol. (She doesn’t control the National Guard.)
But the furious pace of his falsehoods made them impossible to counter in real time. Trump just filibustered. And many of Collins’ fans came away feeling like CNN had put her — a rising star and widely respected journalist — in a no-win situation.
The night underscored how CNN has changed under the management of CHRIS LICHT. Not that long ago, CNN star anchor JAKE TAPPER refused to have GOP lawmakers who declined to certify the 2020 election on his show. Now, the network appears to have done a 180.
INSTANT REGRETS: Before the town hall began, CNN faced heavy criticism for lending Trump its platform, with many critics suggesting that the network was prioritizing ratings above its commitment to the truth. Not everyone saw it that way, of course: JON RALSTON, the CEO of the Nevada Independent, posed a Twitter thread earlier in the day defending CNN’s decision, noting that Trump is the GOP frontrunner and needs to be questioned.
Minutes into the event, Ralston reversed course. “It’s a farce,” he wrote. “I am so sad.”
By the end of the night, the reviews were abysmal. The words “disaster” and “disgrace” were plastered all over Twitter. On MSNBC, host ALEX WAGNER called the spectacle an “hour of misinformation, lies and disinformation.” MATT FULLER, Washington bureau chief of the Daily Beast, railed against the forum as “journalism malpractice,” evidence that the media has “absolutely learned nothing.”
“Does CNN count that as an in-kind campaign donation?” asked DAN RATHER.
Even network talent and talking heads participating on CNN panels following the event seemed shell-shocked. And sources inside the network confided their deep regrets.
“It was a complete disaster,” one CNN employee told Playbook, arguing that the format — specifically, stacking the audience with Trump supporters who cheered his lies — was a “strategic error.”
“It made it seem like CNN was endorsing that behavior,” the employee said. “Incredibly disappointing.”
CNN did not respond to requests for comment about whether they regretted giving Trump a platform — nor did they answer questions about whether Trump or his team had a say in selecting audience participants.
In a statement, network spokesperson MATT DORNIC defended Collins as a “world-class journalist” who was able “to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner. That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”
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