Everyone’s least favorite purveyors of fake news, CNN, announced on Monday that former President Donald Trump, the network’s archenemy, will be participating in a town hall event that will be held next week, paving the way for the first appearance by Trump on the news channel since he ran for president in 2016. The event is scheduled to take place in the state of New Hampshire at 9 p.m. on May 10. The moderator for the event will be anchor Kaitlan Collins.
The network revealed that the former president will be taking questions from Republicans and voters who are currently undeclared at St. Anselm College. The audience participants are planning to cast their ballots in New Hampshire’s GOP presidential primary.
“Trump, who is known to throw the ‘fake news’ label at CNN, agreed to participate in the town hall after ‘CNN executives made a compelling pitch,’ an adviser to the former president told Semafor. The adviser also said Trump is ‘running to be president for all Americans,'” the Daily Wire reported.
CNN says Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in New Hampshire town hall next week; @kaitlancollins will moderate pic.twitter.com/fBQaiMSFT8
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 2, 2023
Recently published polls that have examined the upcoming 2024 presidential race have consistently shown Trump with a vast lead over other potential contenders in the field. Right behind him, in second place, is Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not officially announced his intentions to run for the White House, however he seemingly is moving in that direction.
“Trump is running his latest re-election campaign after losing the 2020 contest to now-President Joe Biden, who last week announced he is seeking a second term. This time around, Trump is facing a flurry of high-profile investigations, including a case in Manhattan in which he became the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged,” the report said.
“Some, including POLITICO, surmised that Trump agreeing to sit down with CNN was an “implicit” swipe at Fox News after Trump lashed out at the Republican National Committee following its decision to pick Fox News to host the first 2024 presidential primary,” the Daily Wire continued.
“When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?” Trump published on his Truth Social platform.
CNN is already facing some major backlash for cutting a deal with Trump. There have even been liberals who have called for a boycott of CNN.
“Wow, apparently CNN figured out how to do real-time fact–checking that might prevent a bad-faith actor from making a flurry of false claims that would otherwise go unchallenged,” said Washington Post columnist Philip Bump.
“Here it is, [CNN] committing journalistic suicide: If there was ONE consensus about 2024 it was that ‘covering’ Trump the way they did in 2016 (handing him live blocks of free airtime with no fact-checking possible) was irresponsible,” posted former ESPN host and hard-Left commentator Keith Olbermann, going on to add, “And CNN’s doing it.”
A statement was put out by CNN explaining why the network decided to host a town hall event with the former president.
“CNN has a longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates for Town Halls and political events as a critical component of the network’s robust campaign coverage,” the network stated. “This event with former President Trump will be the first of many for CNN in the coming months as CNN correspondents travel across the country to hear directly from voters in the runup to the 2024 presidential election.”
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