On Wednesday night, CNN invited President Trump to hold a town hall in front of New Hampshire voters.
Despite her best efforts and weeks of preparation and role-playing, “nasty” CNN host Kaitlan Collins was dragged through the mud by President Trump.
CNN had to cut the network’s town hall with President Trump by 20 minutes after Trump, backed by a wildly supportive audience (hand-picked by CNN), took control of the forum from anchor Kaitlan Collins right from the start and never let up.
Puck’s Dylan Byers reported on CNN cutting the town hall short, “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.”
On Thursday, Anderson Cooper had a rambling opening monologue in which he said he would understand if his viewers decided to stop tuning in to CNN following Trump’s town hall.
Cooper even refused to say Trump’s name, only calling him “that person.”
“Now, many of you think CNN shouldn’t have given him any platform to speak, and I understand the anger about that giving him the audience the time, I get that. But this is what I also get. The man you were so disturbed to see and hear from last night, that man is the front runner for the Republican nomination for president. And according to polling, no other Republican is even close. That man you were so upset to hear from last night, he may be President of the United States in less than two years,” said Cooper.
“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 people you agree with is going to make that person go away?” Cooper added.
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
On Wednesday, 3.3 million people watched CNN’s town hall with former President Trump, according to Los Angeles Times.
According to Nielsen, this event drew CNN’s greatest viewership since the network’s July hearings at the U.S. Capitol incident on January 6, 2021. Even though Trump’s participation brought in a lot of viewers for CNN, the figure was about the same as Tucker Carlson’s regular Fox News audience before he was let go a month ago.
via thegatewaypundit