CNN hosts Anderson Cooper and Kaitlan Collins addressed their network’s town hall with former President Trump on their respective hours on Thursday. The town hall, hosted by Collins, has sparked criticism from across the media business and reportedly even from within.
“Before we begin with tonight’s broadcast, I want to say something about what we witnessed at last night’s town hall,” said Cooper. “Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions and predictably, continued to spew lie after lie after lie. And I get it. It was disturbing.”
However, he later said it is crucial for those lies to be publicly challenged, and pleaded for his viewers to get our of “your silo,” a remark which didn’t go over well with many of the show’s loyal viewers.
“But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?” Cooper added. “If we all only listen to those we agree with, it may actually do the opposite. If lies are allowed to go unchecked, as imperfect as our ability to check them is on a stage in real-time, those lies continue and those lies spread.”
“If you’re angry or upset, I understand, but you have the power to do something about it.” Listen to CNN’s @andersoncooper discuss the CNN Republican presidential town hall with Donald Trump, as Manu Raju and Jessica Dean share the GOP reaction to the former president. Watch: pic.twitter.com/wzcrUoHEt1
— CNN (@CNN) May 12, 2023
Collins opened the 9 p.m. hour–CNN Primetime–by discussing the event. If recent reports are accurate, the hour will be hers on a permanent basis in the not too distant future.
“Good evening and thanks for joining me. About last night…,” Collins opened. “The 70 minutes that I spent on stage in New Hampshire with former President Donald Trump was a major inflection point in the Republican Party’s search for its nominee, and potentially the starting line for America’s next presidential race.”
She added: “It’s important to remember that he is right now the GOP frontrunner. A race that he is running, as noted, while being criminally indicted, found civilly liable, and under investigation for everything from his handling of classified documents to his business empire. Also notable is the Republican reaction on Capitol Hill today to someone who could easily once again become their party’s nominee.”
The broadcast then showed several short interviews with Republican lawmakers who were critical of Trump’s town performance and remarks, most notably Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Indiana Sen. Todd Young.
Sen. Young, for instance, told CNN that he did not intend to support Trump in the Republican primary, while Sen. Romney said, “I think people saw last night what they would get with another term of Donald Trump as president, which is a completely untethered to the truth…”
Collins concluded her open, “Maybe most telling, though, was how Trump spent most of those seventy minutes defending himself, that he was hardly focused on the current occupant of the Oval Office, President Joe Biden, even as Trump’s advisers have privately urged him to look ahead instead of backward.”
