Donald Trump Defends CNNs Town Hall, Brags About Sky High Ratings – Forbes

nominee Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally in the Rodeo Arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds October 29, 2016 in Golden, Colorado. The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Friday it discovered emails pertinent to the closed investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's private email server and are looking to see if they improperly contained classified information. Trump said "I think it's the biggest story since Watergate." (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump took a victory lap Thursday, bragging about the sky high ratings for his town hall appearance on CNN Wednesday. People are criticizing CNN for giving me a Forum to tell the TRUTH, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. I believe it was a very smart thing that they did, with Sky High Ratings that they havent seen in a very long time. It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!

CNN, which has languished in third place behind MSNBC and Fox News Channel, jumped into first place Wednesday night, with its controversial Trump town hall delivering a total audience of 3.264 million viewers. CNN also drew more than 2 million viewers in the hours before and immediately after the town hall. CNN slipped back into third place in the 10 p.m. ET hour, but still had an audience well above its recent average, 1.23 million viewers.

But the network was harshly criticized for allowing Trump to repeat lies about the 2020 election being stolen and to disparage the criminal cases against him, including laughing a jurys verdict finding that Trump has sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, writing in CNNs Reliable Sources newsletter, said while moderator Kaitlan Collins is largely receiving praise for her relentless fact-checking of the former president, she was facing an impossible task. CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism both internally and externally over the event.

On CNN Thursday evening, Anderson Cooper defending the networks decision to host Trump, saying 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?

Later in the evening, Kaitlan Collinswho moderated the town hall session and tried repeatedly to counter Trumps lies, only to be called nasty by the former presidentdefended the event as newsworthy. Anchoring the networks CNN Primetime, Collins opened the hour by saying about last night before describing the town hall as a major inflection point in the Republican Partys search for its nominee, and potentially the starting line for Americas next presidential race.

Collins aired clips of Republicans in Congress who criticized Trumps performance, including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who said I think people saw last night what they would get with another term of Donald Trump as president, which is completely untethered to the truth.

Trump ridiculed criticism from both the left and right, saying in a message on Truth Social that the Radical Left screamed take it down, take it down during the Show because they saw that I was making so many important points on the Border, Energy Independence, the Afghanistan Catastrophe, Inflation, the Economy, Russia/Ukraine, and so much more. Many minds were changed on Wednesday night by listening to Common Sense, and sheer Brilliance.

While CNNs ratings were sky high compared to recent months, the town hall sagged compared to previous town hall events with Trump. Sean Hannitys town hall with Trump in June 2020 drew 5.1 million viewers on Fox News, and CNNs event Wednesday trailed the ratings for four other Trump town halls that aired on Fox, all delivering ratings between 3.5 and 4.2 million viewers. CNNs highest-rated town hall was with President Biden in 2021, which drew 3.7 million viewers.

Mark Joyella is a five-time Emmy Award-winning reporter and news anchor for television stations in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and New York City. He's worked in cable news at CNN and Fox and his writing has appeared in Adweek, the New York Post, the Orlando Sentinel, The Dallas Morning News and Men's Health.

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Donald Trump Defends CNNs Town Hall, Brags About Sky High Ratings - Forbes