CNN faces boycott calls on Trump town hall hosted by Kaitlan Collins – live

As Carroll emerged from the Manhattan courthouse beaming on Tuesday, Trump and his allies quickly issued statements defending the former president.

Donald Trump will speak at a CNN town hall tonight at 8 p.m. ET in New Hampshire as the 2024 Republican primary season begins.

Trump is the favorite in a limited field so far and more candidates are expected to join the race.

CNN is facing mounting criticism for hosting the event after a Manhattan jury held Trump accountable for sexually abusing writer E Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s.

In a statement to The independent, A CNN spokesperson responded to criticism of the network for hosting a town hall event with Trump.

“President Trump is the leading Republican candidate and our job, despite his unique circumstances, is to do what we do best. Ask tough questions, follow up, and hold yourself accountable for giving voters the information they need to rank their options. That is our role and our responsibility,” said a spokesperson for the network.

The town hall will be moderated by Kaitlan Collins, co-host of CNN this morning.

According to CNN, “City Hall will broadcast live without the need to log in on cable, on the CNN.com home page and on all mobile devices.”

Trump is expected to “answer questions from New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters planning to vote in the 2024 Republican presidential primary,” the network added.

Former DC officer and CNN contributor Michael Fanone criticized his own network in an article to Rolling Stone magazine, arguing that Trump should not be allowed to appear at tonight’s town hall event.

“On a recent trip to CNN’s Washington, DC bureau, I sat quietly in the green room as guests, anchors and employees filtered in and yelled how outrageous it was for CBS to give Marjorie Taylor Greene an interview. in his prestigious 60 minutes series. Good question? I hope my fellow CNN employees have the guts to pose those same questions to network executives,” she wrote.

“I don’t believe for a second that it’s about journalistic integrity. It’s all about ratings and money. Sometimes things are exactly as they appear, and this appears to be an attempt by a major media outlet struggling with its ratings to attract disenfranchised viewers,” she added.

Fanone said that “allowing Trump an open forum on a major television news network is the moral equivalent of putting an AR-15 in the hands of someone mentally unstable.”

In a statement to The independent, A CNN spokesperson responded to criticism of the network for hosting a town hall event with Trump.

“President Trump is the leading Republican candidate and our job, despite his unique circumstances, is to do what we do best. Ask tough questions, follow up, and hold yourself accountable for giving voters the information they need to rank their options. That is our role and our responsibility,” said a spokesperson for the network.

The author of the Popular Information newsletter, judd legum, tweeted on Wednesday that “CNN’s town hall audience with Trump will be 400 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.”

“Allowing Trump to appear in front of an audience made up exclusively of people who are likely to support Trump, and then passing the questions to that group, is irresponsible,” he added.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told ABC News that Trump has no reason to file an appeal.

“He has no appeal,” he said, adding that the judge gave Trump “multiple opportunities to go into that courtroom and testify.”

“Donald Trump, like all of us, is not above the law,” he said.

Ms. Carroll recalled holding her lawyer’s hand as the verdict was read.

“It was this savvy 5-foot-3 lawyer and this 79-year-old advice columnist who finally held Donald Trump accountable,” Carroll told ABC News. “It was such a wonderful, overwhelming moment.”

Ms Carroll also appeared on CNN and said that “the old vision of the perfect victim was a woman who always screamed. A woman who immediately denounced a woman whose life was supposed to end and she would never experience happiness again.”

“That was just closed with this verdict, the death of the perfect victim has occurred. Now this verdict is for all women,” she added.

Speaking about her reaction when the jury failed to find that Trump raped her, she said: “Well, immediately [said] in my own head, ‘Oh yeah, it did. Oh yeah, he did.’”

When he shook hands with Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, he told him: “He did it. And you know it.”

“I’m really taking in the moment and the overwhelming flood of a lot of hate that is part of it,” he told CNN.

He added that he was feeling an “overwhelming amount of relief and joy.”

“There is a kind of sense of victory that someone has finally held him accountable in court,” Ms Carroll said.

The political action committee founded by former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney released a television ad warning Americans that former President Donald Trump “is a risk America can never take again.”

The 60-second ad will air in the New Hampshire area before and after Trump appears online Wednesday night for a town hall session with host Kaitlan Collins.

Though it will hit viewers who tune in to the event on Wednesday, a CNN spokesperson said. the independent that the network “does not control the local ads that regularly air on CNN during local recesses” and emphasized that CNN “does not sell ads to candidates or campaign during our town hall events.”

Narrated by Cheney, the ad describes how Trump began lying about conducting the 2020 election after it became clear he would lose to Joe Biden.

Michael Fanone, who served for two decades as a Washington DC police officer, wrote in a column for Rolling Stone magazine that the news of Trump’s appearance on CNN at a town hall struck him as a “sucker punch.”

Fanone is a contributor to CNN.

“As a result of my efforts that day, I was severely beaten, tasered multiple times, and suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury,” Fanone wrote.

“Now, full disclosure, I ‘work’ for CNN. Meaning, I get a monthly check from them and have since abruptly quit my job as an MPD officer almost a year after I was injured,” she added. “In the almost two years that I have worked for this network, I have had countless conversations with its employees, producers, presenters, journalists, cameramen, etc.”

“Everyone has stories about the ‘Trump’ years. When the former president attacked them (many because of his name), he inspired countless acts of violence, both threatened and overt, by his supporters. Many employees told me they were afraid to wear anything that would identify them as a CNN employee when out in public. So why lend your network platform to someone like that? he wrote.