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Originally posted by Rightwire:
CNN: This town hall is to show you exactly how horrible Donald Trump is as a candidate.

Donald Trump:

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Originally posted by Ripley:
Caitlan could have commanded more respect with a five o'clock shadow.

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Originally posted by parabellum:
This idea that the left is promoting Donald Trump because they want to run against him- ridiculous. If they could get of of him, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

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MSNBC host Joy Reid called the event “blatant fascism meets The Jerry Springer Show”

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Few of his supporters were surprised to learn that Trump was going to do a sit-down in New Hampshire for CNN. The man does not shy away from potential political disasters; he thrives on them, runs straight at them, unafraid.

Why? Because he always comes out of these things having won bigly. Not only is he quick thinking and knowledgeable when it comes to the facts on all the relevant issues, he is gloriously entertaining, verbally and visually. His facial expressions and gestures say as much he does with words.

The CNN sit-down Wednesday night was no exception. Host Kaitlan Colllins clearly thought she would have the upper hand. Coming from the bubble of leftist propaganda that is CNN’s principal reason for being, of course she believed she would be the hero of the event. But she got her comeuppance within the first few minutes. She acted the fool and Trump does not suffer fools, he eviscerates them with a smile on his face.

He certainly got the better of Kaitlan Collins despite her rude, smug arrogance. She set a new record for dismissive interviews. She forgot that Trump has had years and years of experience with boorish and ignorant pretend journalists who hate, loathe and despise him. She clearly has no experience with an outlier with so many IQ points on her.

With each question she aimed to embarrass him, to humiliate him. But she had no actual facts, not when it came to protecting schools, the Second Amendment, the documents stored at Mar-A-Lago, the event of January 6, 2021, the border wall, school shootings (she exaggerated wildly), etc.

She had what she thought were facts but were just Democrat talking points. For example, Trump noted that the man who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, Michael Byrd, bragged about having done it, which he did. He said that killing her saved lives! Collins tried to deny that fact.

She accused Trump of not keeping his promise to build the wall! He did, despite the Democrats’ fevered attempts to stop it. It stopped the day Biden took office, as did the new pipelines and drilling that had provided energy independence for us.

In short, Collins was overconfident, prepared to crush the man, but he crushed her with some delightful facial mockery and without lifting his little finger. Collins is the new Candy Crowley of CNN. It was a very entertaining interview.

Every time Trump mentioned the 2020 election, she interrupted to say words to the effect of, “There was no fraud Mr. President.” There was, of course, but she, like the rest of the left, has avoided looking at the volumes of evidence from the beginning. It’s a safe bet that Collins has never read the Navarro Report or any of the other countless reports that prove fraud, the same forms of fraud that affected the 2022 elections. Katie Hobbs, for example, did not win the governorship of Arizona. At one point, Trump looked at her and told her she is a “very nasty person.” She was indeed. There was tremendous satisfaction in watching him vanquish her while she still thought she had the upper hand. Ah, the hubris of youth. So robbed of critical thinking skills, without any wisdom that comes with age, blinded by their own self-importance, they don’t see their defeat until it buries them. Kaitlan Collins got buried tonight.

Needless to say, the audience loved Trump. He took some very good questions from the audience, each of them more thoughtful than any Collins asked.

It is said that people who think they have all the answers do not ask interesting questions. That was Collins. Each of her questions was framed as either an insult or an attack. Trump gave good and thoughtful answers to the questions from the audience, none of which Collins appeared happy with; she hated every answer he provided. As the interview progressed, she withered under his knowledge and competence.

Given Trump’s age, she perhaps expected a man with Biden’s impaired abilities and assumed she could and would mortify Trump with her meant-to-embarrass questions and mis-statements of fact. She failed. He embarrassed her. He got a standing ovation at the end, which he certainly deserved.

It was clear from the outset that Collins was outmatched. Even AOC saw that it was trainwreck. She tweeted early in the hour:

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. For once, she was absolutely correct. Trump’s poll numbers will very likely rise again.

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Originally posted by smschulz:
Maybe just let the audience conclude their own opinion?

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The source said Licht received a "ton" of messages from CNN staffers appalled by Darcy's newsletter, which emphasizes how CNN and Licht were facing tense backlash "internally" as well as externally.

The messages, according to the source, were like "what the f---."

"I'm asking you to not be emotional," the source paraphrased what Licht told Darcy at the meeting, adding that he wanted nonemotional coverage applied to all news outlets, not just CNN.

Puck News first reported that after Licht stood by the Trump town hall on CNN's Thursday morning editorial call, he brought Darcy and his editor Jon Passantino in for a meeting later in the day. Darcy was then told by CNN's top brass "his coverage had been too emotional and [Licht] repeatedly stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate when covering the news, be it CNN or any other media organization."

"Darcy stood by his work and pushed back on the ‘emotional’ characterization, one source with knowledge of the meeting said. But afterward two sources who heard about the meeting described him as visibly shaken. ‘They put the fear of God into him,’ one source said," Puck News' Dylan Byers reported Friday.

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While 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.

How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial. Will they defend what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret?