The CNN Town Hall: A Conversation with New Hampshire Electoral Leader Kaitlan Collins, a former CNN President, and After the Donald Trump Insurrection
New Hampshire voters that aren’t committed will be featured in a CNN town hall. Kaitlan Collins is the morning host. She was a former White House correspondent for CNN.
CNN political director David Chalian said the network approached the event as it would one for any candidate, but called Trump a “unique candidate” in that he’s a former president – the first one to run for the White House in more than a century.
And Chalian acknowledged another distinction. Trump trashed governing norms. He was not found guilty in the US Senate but he was impeached twice by the U.S. House.
“Obviously, he is under indictment in one case. He’s under investigation in several other cases, and then there’s the insurrection – January 6th – and how Donald Trump left office,” Chalian told NPR before Tuesday’s verdict in the Carroll case. “Our job is to ask him questions and follow up, hold him accountable for his words and actions, and we’re going to have this conversation with voters as well.”
CNN Shouldn’t be the Beginning of a New & Vibrant CNN, with No More Fake News, For The Future Of The U.S.
Collins was a former reporter for the Daily Caller that was founded by Carlson. She did not have an ideological affinity as a CNN White House reporter. Indeed, she was hardly seen as a pushover. Trump aides irked over her coverage once blocked her from attending a press conference. The Trump White House went to court in attempt to have Jim’s credentials revoked.
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan argued against inviting Trump on. CNN had an obligation to confront the former president because of his record in office and out of office, he said. CNN should start by asking Trump whether he had disqualified himself from the presidency, both for his actions ahead of the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol and recent comments that appeared to justify “terminating” parts of the U.S. Constitution.
Now he’s encouraging followers to tune in Wednesday night. I couldn’t refuse the deal they made me. Trump has his own social media site. “Could be the beginning of a New & Vibrant CNN, with no more Fake News, or it could turn into a disaster for all, including me.”
The CNN appearance was to allow Trump to demonstrate his independence from his fans. It hasn’t been a complete Fox blackout; Trump has given interviews this year to conservative Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, as well as Carlson before his departure.
“The U.S. has divided government,” Zaslav said last week on CNBC. We have to hear each other’s voices. Republicans are on the air on CNN. Democrats are on the air. All voices should be heard on CNN.”
Reliable Sources was canceled and Don Lemon moved to the morning. Both hosts had been outspoken against Trump. Lemon was accused of sexism both on air and toward his female co-hosts. The characterizations arecontested by Lemon and his attorney. Licht has told his staff they are re-establishing the channel’s original identity.
CNN has much to prove, as well. In his first year on the job, chairman and CEO Chris Licht has sought to put his mark on the network by draining it of the relentless criticism of Trump in response to the crises and controversies that defined his administration. Many Republicans feel that CNN has become too political.
Just hours before Tuesday’s verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s civil suit against him, Trump wrote an angry post on his Truth Social account inveighing against the Murdochs, Fox corporate director Paul Ryan (“Worst Republican Speaker ever”) and their premier newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, as well as Fox, which he wrote was “rapidly disintegrating.” (Indeed, its primetime ratings have plunged since it fired star Tucker Carlson late last month, though Fox officials suggest they will rebound once a permanent replacement is named.)
Before the jury foreperson announced the verdict at a courtroom in lower Manhattan Tuesday, the immediate stakes for Trump – and CNN – were already high. They are even higher now.
Little more than a day after being found liable for battery and defamation of a woman who says he raped her in the 1990s, former President Donald Trump is scheduled to take questions in a live town-hall event on the news network whose journalists he called “the enemy of the people” while running for the presidency and serving in office.
The whole spectacle sounds downright chilling. Mr. Trump will have free rein to lie when the event is live. He will be coming off the E. Jean Carroll verdict, upping his odds of saying something awful about women or witch hunts and how everyone is always out to get him. And even if he dials down the crazy, his re-emergence on a major prime-time platform raises vexing questions. Can we really treat a carnival barker like a normal candidate after he put America through so much? How can CNN and other media outlets justify giving him a megaphone from which to dominate and degrade the political landscape? Have we learned nothing from the past eight years?
Short answer: We have in fact learned much about Mr. Trump and the threat he poses to American democracy. But trying to shut him out of the public discussion or campaign process would bring its own dangers. It would play into the politics of victimhood that he sells with so much effectiveness. It could undermine public faith in the democratic process, and make the system look weak to deal with an autocrat. There are no easy fixes, like the MAGA king, does.
Mr. Trump can serve a third term in the White House, even if he does not legally prevent it. Yes, many voters consider his double impeachments, his role in the Jan. 6 riot and his glut of legal troubles to be disqualifying. But many others do not. The polls consistently place the former president at the front of the pack. He has a 36 point advantage over Gov. Ron DeSantis among likely G.O.P. primary voters. No one cracked double digits. The ABC News-Washington Post poll shows him with a six-point advantage over President Biden, despite the fact that there are still undecided voters.