CNN’s town hall with President Trump on Wednesday night was cut short by twenty minutes because Trump, aided by a fervently receptive audience (selected by CNN), promptly took control from host Kaitlan Collins and never relinquished it. The town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire was scheduled to last from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. EDT, but Collins abruptly terminated it at 9:10 p.m.
In the introduction to a live thread on The Telegraph, the duration of the town hall was listed as follows:
“Good evening. Follow our updates as Donald Trump participates in a ‘town hall’ during which he will face questions from a live audience. The 90-minute event comes one day after a civil jury found the former US President liable for the sexual abuse of writer E Jean Carroll. Mr Trump reacted to that finding by posting on his Truth Social app that the case was a “witch hunt” and that he had “absolutely no idea who this woman is”. Expect further defensive comments when Mr Trump takes the stage in New Hampshire tonight. The event will be moderated by former chief White House correspondent and CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.”
As reported by Puck’s Dylan Byers, CNN cut the town hall short, which prompted many viewers to question why the network terminated the program 20 minutes early.
“Note: The CNN Town Hall was a 90 minute broadcast, though the network expected the actual event to go as long as 75 minutes. They stopped less than 70 minutes in. In other words, they could have gone longer if they wanted—which is usually what executives do with big ratings draws”
Note: The CNN Town Hall was a 90 minute broadcast, though the network expected the actual event to go as long as 75 minutes. They stopped less than 70 minutes in. In other words, they could have gone longer if they wanted—which is usually what executives do with big ratings draws
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) May 11, 2023
Van Jones to Kaitlin Collins: pic.twitter.com/7YeP9CFIw5
— Big Tom Callahan🇺🇸 (@CallahanAutoCo) May 11, 2023
Trump just pulls out receipts to disprove Kaitlin Collins' claims on the CNN town hall… and the crowd cheers!
This is NOT going the way CNN wanted it to. pic.twitter.com/7byCeFkCHr
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) May 11, 2023
Former President Trump to Kaitlan Collins:
"You're a nasty person, I'll tell ya…" pic.twitter.com/6rkLCfbsPQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 11, 2023
WATCH 🚨
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asks President Trump why he had documents at Mar-a-Lago, and Trump drops TRUTH BOMBS on her.
“They didn’t raid Biden’s house! That’s the one with the Corvette and the documents were laying all over the floor. I have Secret Service. He didn’t!” pic.twitter.com/ZfHc5UFqfB
— Alex Sheppard 🇺🇸 (@NotAlexSheppard) May 11, 2023
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
Joel Pollak of Breitbart saw the crowd was laughing at Collins, “The @CNN audience is laughing at Kaitlin Collins because she keeps trying to squeeze Trump’s answers into her preconceived categories. It’s stupid and, yes, it is funny to laugh at her doing that.” CONTINUE READING…
