Former President Donald Trump pushed back on the heavy criticism CNN has faced for hosting Trump during a town hall event this week. The, at times, combative event with host Kaitlan Collins led to 3.31 million total viewers tuning in to the network, according to Nielsen ratings.
Trump wasted little time on touting the ratings on his social media platform Truth Social. "People are criticizing CNN for giving me a Forum to tell the TRUTH. I believe it was a very smart thing that they did, with Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time," Trump posted Thursday night. "It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!"
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"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," the former president continued. "Many minds were changed on Wednesday night by listening to Common Sense, and sheer 'Brilliance.'"
He also linked to a New York Times story in which CNN's CEO, Chris Licht, defended inviting Trump to participate in the town hall on Wednesday. "I absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,” Licht said of the event.
On Friday morning, Trump continued the braggadocio by posting a video clip of CNN host Anderson Cooper saying, "That was President Donald J. Trump ripping us a new [expletive] here on CNN's live presidential town hall."
In the aftermath of the 70-minute town hall, Collins, Trump, and CNN were all heavily criticized. Senate Republicans were hesitant to talk about Trump's performance and noted Democrats would campaign against Trump using clips from the town hall. Media critics torched CNN for allowing Trump to spread falsehoods and overrunning Collins.
The former president spent a considerable amount of time refusing to express any regret for his actions after losing the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden. On several occasions, Trump falsely claimed the election was "rigged" and said he would pardon some of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot protesters. Collins repeatedly interrupted Trump to fact-check his assertions, but a friendly audience of Republicans and undeclared voters who will vote in the GOP primary often cheered Trump on.
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Democrats also publicly criticized the town hall, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claiming, "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," she added.