CNN, in a desperate search for ratings and striking while Fox News is down after firing Tucker Carlson, is set to hold a Town Hall with former President Donald Trump in New Hampshire on May 10.
CNN announced the event with gleeful fanfare today:
Former President Donald Trump will participate in a CNN presidential town hall next week in New Hampshire, the network announced Monday.
“CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins will moderate the event at St. Anselm College, which will air at 9 p.m. ET on May 10 and will feature the former president taking questions from New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
This will be Trump’s first appearance on CNN since the 2016 presidential campaign.
Is that true? Has Trump not appeared on CNN airwaves since the 2016 election? It must be true since CNN is the one that points it out.
Trump’s return to the network marks some kind of reset of the presidential playing field, no doubt, and may also be part of CNN’s restructuring to become less a mouthpiece for woke liberalism and Trump-bashing and more toward something that resembles an actual news network.
If you were Trump, would you bother giving CNN the ratings boom they’re sure to get or is there something deeper going on?
As the CNN press release notes, Trump’s full-court press on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been ramping up:
The CNN town hall comes as Trump has quickly emerged as the frontrunner in the Republican field for president in 2024. A handful of Republicans have entered the 2024 race so far, though Trump’s biggest potential rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is still weighing a possible campaign. Trump’s campaign and political allies have continued to ramp up their attacks on DeSantis as the former president has racked up congressional endorsements, including from Florida Republicans who routinely work with DeSantis.
But the former president is running to retake the White House at the same time that he’s been indicted in New York and faces additional legal peril in Washington and Georgia.
The CNN town hall on May 10 is the first of two high-profile events Trump has scheduled so far this month. On May 13, Trump will be headlining a rally in Des Moines, Iowa.
While CNN seems thrilled to have landed the former president, not everyone is quite as happy:
Angelo Carusone, chief executive of Media Matters for America, a progressive watchdog, said: “The transparent attempt to goose their ratings does feel at least a little odious. But all the more reason that they need to get this right.”
Judd Legum, author of the Popular Information newsletter, said: “First, CNN systematically purged anyone on the network who was deemed too anti-Trump. Now this.”
Keith Olbermann, a Trump critic and former MSNBC host, said: “I think we can say Chris Licht’s conversion of CNN into a political and journalistic wh-rehouse is complete.”
Frankly, who cares? CNN is trying to become relevant again and giving some air time to Trump is a way to regain some form of credibility when it comes to being a news network that covers both sides.
The event will go down on May 10 at 9 pm ET. There’s no word if a free stream will be made available. Stay tuned.
