‘You Guys Asked Him The Question’: CNN Host Silenced By Trump Focus Group

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.


A group of Republican and Independent voters in New Hampshire took verbal aim at CNN moderators in the immediate aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s town hall event Wednesday evening, his first appearance on the network in years.

Focus group participants did not mince words when they were asked to explain why Trump continues to “lie” about the results of the 2020 election.

Jonathan Lesley, a member of the group who twice voted for Trump, fired back at the moderator: “You guys asked him the first question at the town hall about the 2020 election rather than current stuff.”

During the hourlong event, CNN host Kaitlan Collins focused on questioning Trump repeatedly about his electoral defeat in the 2020 election against President Joe Biden rather than inquiring about his plans for a potential reelection campaign and focusing more on how his policies would differ from that of Biden’s.

President Trump and the liberal network have had a tumultuous relationship over the years, and Trump utilized Collins’ line of questioning to present his own narrative regarding lawsuits, investigations, and alleged misconduct by former allies.

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The audience, comprised entirely of Republican voters, expressed vocal support for Trump’s assertions that he emerged as the victor in the 2020 election—a topic that Collins initiated at the beginning of the evening and continuously revisited.

Following the town hall, CNN CEO Chris Licht prepared to announce that Collins, 31, will take over the network’s 9 PM ET primetime slot, which was previously occupied by Chris Cuomo before he was fired.

“CNN, which has endured some of the worst ratings in its history under Zaz’s hand-picked C.E.O., Chris Licht, is now poised for a brief taste of the same power and influence that it enjoyed in the old days. And it will achieve that massive audience, of course, via the very same mechanism that fueled the Zucker years: Donald Trump,” Puck News reported.

News of Collins’ meteoric rise at CNN comes as she hosted what many are calling a “disastrous” townhall in New Hampshire on Wednesday night with former President Donald Trump.

In a statement, a CNN spokesperson told Mediaite: “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.”

Many left-wing politicians and other liberals excoriated CNN for inviting Trump on in the first place.

New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this “town hall” to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host. This falls squarely on CNN. Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.”

Justin Baragona, the senior media reporter for The Daily Beast, tweeted: “Immediate reaction from a CNN on-air personality to me just now on this Trump town hall: ‘It is so bad. I was cautiously optimistic despite the criticism. It is awful. It’s a Trump infomercial. We’re going to get crushed.’”

Trump took on a number of questions from the audience as well:

 


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