Former President Donald Trump beamed at the “sky-high ratings” he delivered to CNN Wednesday night for his controversial town hall.
“It was by far the biggest show of the night, week and month!” Trump bragged about Truth Social, the social media site he founded in October 2021 after being suspended from Twitter earlier that year.
“[It] was very clever what they did,” Trump wrote in the two-part post Thursday night, adding that City Hall gave CNN “skyrocketing ratings that they haven’t seen in a long time.”
Town Hall’s Republican front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination drew 3.3 million viewers, the cable network’s highest number in last place in two years. A town hall with President Biden on February 16, 2021 attracted 3.7 million viewers.
In “page 2” of Thursday’s Truth Social post, Trump claimed that “many had changed their minds on Wednesday night by listening to common sense and sheer ‘genius.'”
“The radical left screamed ‘Take it down, take it down’ on the show because they saw me address so many important points about the border, energy independence, the disaster in Afghanistan, inflation, the economy, Russia/Ukraine and so on. much more,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.
Trump tuned in to critics who criticized the network for letting him make his repeated claim that the 2020 election was “rigged,” defending the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters and a jury’s recent decision to find him liable for sexual assault. abuse and defamation in a lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.
“People are criticizing CNN for giving me a forum to tell the TRUTH,” he bellowed.
Among those critics was CNN’s own longtime host Anderson Cooper, who called City Hall “disturbing” and told viewers they “have every right to be angry and never watch this network again.”
Cooper pointed to scathing remarks made at the event, including when Trump called a black law enforcement official involved in the U.S. Capitol riot a “thug,” and when he called host Kaitlan Collins an “annoying person” as she placed Trump under pressured the ongoing investigation into his handling of classified documents.
Rival cable TV hosts on left-wing MSNBC were even more shocked by CNN’s handling of City Hall. Nicolle Wallace criticized the network for knowingly broadcasting Trump’s “misogynistic attacks” just weeks after he fired Don Lemon for his own misogynistic remarks.
“So now the company is also part of the story,” Wallace said on Thursday’s “Deadline: White House,” suggesting that CNN’s decision to silence one man over misogynistic remarks while he chose to to broadcast another’s was hypocritical.
Joy Reid, host of “The ReidOut”, labeled the broadcast as “blatant fascism meets ‘The Jerry Springer Show’.”
In another joke, Reid said CNN shows it is “desperate to be the new home for Republican viewers. They want to be the new Fox.”
CNN’s 3.3 million rating for City Hall gave the network a rare victory in the 8 p.m. timeslot against Fox News and MSNBC, both of which drew 1.4 million total viewers.
The struggling network also received a boost of more than 2 million viewers in the hours just before and after town hall, according to Forbes.
Even two hours after the event, CNN reportedly still had an audience of 1.2 million, according to Forbes, well above the network’s recent average.
While CNN’s ratings soared, it’s unclear if City Hall will hurt Trump’s popularity as he is a third-time White House candidate. He is already the preferred candidate of 62% of right-wing voters, according to the Conservative Political Action Conference poll.
His lead is a wide margin over expected rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had 20% support.
