Donald Trump‘s bombastic CNN town hall sent liberal media into despair, with the network’s own reporter Oliver Darcy tearing into his bosses in a newsletter and others calling it a ‘low moment’.
The hour-long appearance included Trump’s relentless insistence that the 2020 election was rigged, his refusal to give a straight answer on abortion, and his characterization of moderator Kaitlan Collins as a ‘nasty person’.
Democrats and pundits like AOC and Joy Behar shared their disgust almost immediately.
But the event also sent journalists – including CNN‘s Oliver Darcy – spinning.
Donald Trump’s town hall on CNN last night. Moderator Kaitlan Collins was given ‘an impossible task’ according to her colleagues, who are now furious with bosses
CNN boss Chris Licht took over last year and vowed to cleanse the network of its bias. He has been slammed for giving Trump a platform
‘It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,’ fumed Darcy, CNN’s media reporter whose newsletter Reliable Sources was published shortly after the end of the event.
‘Trump lied about the 2020 election. He took no responsibility for the January 6 insurrection that those very lies incited. And he mocked E. Jean Carroll’s allegations of sexual assault, which a jury found him liable for on Tuesday.
‘And CNN aired it all. On and on it went. It felt like 2016 all over again,’ Darcy wrote.
CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy raged at his network for the putting on the event
He said Licht, who took over from Jeff Zucker last year and has vowed to cleanse the network of its notorious bias, was now facing ‘a fury of criticism — both internally and externally’.
‘How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial.
‘Will they defend what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret?’ Darcy asked.
His newsletter included a long list of critical tweets from reporters and snippets from reports that slammed the decision to give Trump a platform.
The Guardian’s Siva Vaidhyanathan argued that he should never have been given such a platform.
‘A spectacle of lies’ is how Darcy characterized the event in his Reliable Sources newsletter
Other critics included CNBC’s Alex Sherman. Brian Stelter, CNN’s former media reporter, also chimed in
Slate Magazine called it a ‘disaster’ and lambasted CNN for giving Trump a full hour
Writing before the event even took place, he said: ‘The mainstream American news media seems poised to treat both candidates as if they are viable, reasonable representatives of the traditions their political parties have grown to symbolize.
‘It’s as if they’ve learned nothing.’
Slate magazine called the event a ‘disaster’.
‘He… happens to be the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and that fact was all it took for CNN to ignore literally everything else and give Trump a full hour live Wednesday night as part of a breathtakingly ill-conceived “town hall” with New Hampshire voters.
‘The discussion, moderated poorly by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, was simultaneously a triggering flashback to the bad old days of Trump’s presidency, a frustrating preview of what we can likely expect over the next 18 months, and a conclusive repudiation of CNN CEO Chris Licht’s doomed plan to restore the network’s fortunes by tacking to the imagined middle,’ wrote journalist Justin Peters.
Trump and Collins sparred on stage, with the former president labeling her a ‘nasty person’
Collins tried to fact check Trump in real-time. The audience was mostly comprised of his own supporters
CNBC’s Alex Sherman also slammed Licht for giving Trump a platform.
‘CNN CEO Chris Licht said he wouldn’t allow anyone on his network that said it’s raining when it’s not.
‘But he’s let someone on now who says it’s raining when it’s not, and he added hundreds of people to applaud when he does it.’
CNN defended the decision and Collins last night.
‘Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked tough, fair and revealing questions.
‘And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time 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,’ a network spokesman said.
Since last year, CNN’s ratings have plummeted. In March, viewership in primetime hours was down by 61 percent.
