CNN boss ‘told Donald Trump to have fun’ before unruly town hall began | US News
CNN’s executive director reportedly told Donald Trump to “have fun” before taking the stage for a town hall that grew unruly when the former president spat out lies.
When Trump told CNN CEO Chris Licht backstage Wednesday night that he would increase the network’s ratings, two sources close to the ex-president told the Guardian. Licht nodded and said Trump should “have a good conversation and have fun,” according to the report released Friday.
According to the two sources, Trump wasn’t overly concerned that City Hall in Manchester, New Hampshire was getting high ratings. He was particularly interested in attending because he had more material for his 2024 presidential campaign to share on social media.
In addition, CNN is said to have agreed to book more Trump allies. A network spokesman denied this statement.
Overall, Trump got everything he wanted from City Hall, multiple sources told the news agency.
CNN’s own staffers have criticized City Hall, saying the network has dumped host Kaitlan Collins for fighting back Trump’s lies, including about having the 2020 presidential election stolen from him. Collins attempted to fact-check Trump, but ultimately City Hall provided him with a platform to further advance his agenda.
Trump enjoyed “sky-high ratings” from City Hall on Thursday.
About 3.3 million viewers tuned in, the highest viewership for CNN in two years.
“People criticize CNN for giving me a forum to speak the TRUTH.” “I think it was a very smart thing they did, with sky high ratings that they haven’t seen in a long time have,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.
“It was by far the biggest show of the night, week and month!”
Trump wrote in another post that “many opinions were changed Wednesday night by common sense and sheer ‘brilliance’.”
During the roughly 75-minute town hall meeting, Trump denied blame for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and called Collins a “bad person” as she pressed him on why he was keeping classified documents.
Trump also refused to say whether he wanted Russia or Ukraine to win the war and ridiculed his accuser E. Jean Carroll as a “complete moron.” The town hall meeting came a day after a jury found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll and awarded her about $5 million.
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