May 11, 2023 11:28 AM UTC

Trump's Triumphant Trashing of CNN's Reputation a Turning Point

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr reports for those of you who found something better to do on a Wednesday night than listen to ex-President Donald Trump fictionalize recent American political history for more than an hour:

During a roughly 70-minute-long forum with likely Republican voters in New Hampshire on Wednesday night, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins attempted to correct inaccurate claims made by former president Donald Trump about many topics — but she found her rebuttals falling on deaf ears.

As the crowd cheered throughout Trump’s boasts and falsehoods, Collins repeatedly pushed back when Trump said the 2020 election was “stolen.”

“The election was not rigged, Mr. President,” Collins said. “You can’t keep saying that all night long.”

But he did…

Instead of nailing Trump to the wall once and for all on the historic amalgamation of lies and prejudice that fueled his rise to power and defined his chaotic presidency, ending in removal from office tainted by an attempted insurrection, CNN appears to have demonstrated again how accountability is basically impossible to extract from an unflappable liar like Donald Trump. Even when host Kaitlin Collins was able to follow up with a fact-check, it didn’t matter, because the pro-Trump audience preferred to believe Trump. Politico captured the moment well:

Steamrolling his way through a made-for-primetime spectacle, Trump maintained his lie that the 2020 election was rigged, refused to pledge to accept the results of the 2024 election and called his interviewer a “nasty person.” And he had the crowd on his side for all of it, cheering his answers and laughing at his jokes…

The crowd applauded, laughed and cheered as Trump discussed his decision making on Jan. 6, said he was “inclined” to pardon “many” of the defendants from that day, continued to call the 2020 election “rigged,” and suggested former Vice President Mike Pence should have done more to overturn the election.

There was laughter in the room when he belittled E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine advice columnist to whom a jury in Manhattan awarded $5 million in damages.

In the end, Trump turned this “town hall” event into a campaign rally at the expense of CNN’s airtime and (more importantly) reputation, and proved correct critics who warned that giving Trump any kind of platform would result in a net disservice to the truth CNN is nominally dedicated to reporting. Colorado’s “Ultra-MAGA” go-to Rep. Lauren Boebert rejoiced this morning that “President Trump destroyed Kaitlin Collins.” We have no doubt that CNN attracted a large audience of disaffected Fox News viewers, but the total failure to counter Trump’s serial falsehoods brought CNN’s credibility to the level of Fox News.

With Trump enjoying a commanding lead in Republican primary polling and once-favored challenger Ron DeSantis sputtering before his campaign even launches, last night did a great deal to cement Trump’s status as the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee. Republicans who already harbor contempt for the mainstream media were thrilled to see Trump effortlessly powering through fact-checking attempts. The same lies that repel a majority of Americans resonate with a majority of Republicans.

There’s no sugar-coating it, folks. Last night was a bad night for American democracy, but even worse for Republicans who want to move on from Donald Trump. Sources keep insisting to us that such Republicans exist, but today they have never seemed less relevant.