Former president Donald Trump lauded the network on Thursday, despite previously calling it “fake news.”
Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election, participated in a CNN town hall on Wednesday. This resulted in widespread media outrage.
Liberal commentators complained, but according to The Hill, the program drew more than 3 million viewers, considerably more than CNN has recently attracted in the 8 p.m. time slot where the town hall was broadcast.
Trump asserted that the leftist network had made a prudent decision.
“People are criticizing CNN for giving me a Forum to tell the TRUTH,” the former president posted on his Truth Social platform. “I believe it was a very smart thing that they did, with Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time. It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!”
“The Radical Left screamed, ‘Take it down, take it down,’ during the Show, because they saw that I was making so many important points on the Border, Energy Independence, the Afghanistan Catastrophe, Inflation, the Economy, Russia/Ukraine, and so much more. Many minds were changed on Wednesday night by listening to Common Sense, and sheer ‘Brilliance,’” Trump added in a second post.
Not everyone was in agreement. According to The Washington Post, there were grumbling voices within CNN and the liberal media.
“It should have been a taped interview where you could fact-check him. The audience was laughing at his comments about Jean Carroll. Disgraceful,” the Post quoted a CNN personality it did not name as saying.
This was in allusion to a woman who claimed Trump sexually assaulted her and won $5 million in a lawsuit against him.
In his opening monologue, while defending CNN’s decision to broadcast the Trump town hall, Anderson Cooper said he understood viewers’ indignation over the “disturbing” event.
“You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again,” Cooper said.
JUST IN: Anderson Cooper gives wild opening monologue, telling his audience he understands if they never watch CNN ever again.
“You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to… pic.twitter.com/xZXYSwtAoF
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 12, 2023
Chris Light, president of CNN, defended the decision in a conference call with colleagues.
“We all know covering Donald Trump is messy and tricky, and it will continue to be messy and tricky, but it’s our job,” Licht said, according to The New York Times.
“I absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,” Licht said.
CNN released a transcript of the event. Examples include:
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
Moderator Kaitlan Collins pushed Trump more aggressively than he preferred during a discussion on the sensitive documents kept at Trump’s Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, prompting him to say, “You’re a nasty person, I will tell you.” CONTINUE READING…
