During a commercial break at his rowdy town hall on CNN last week, former President Trump was reportedly "pumped up" after he saw tweets from liberals lambasting the network for hosting him, including one from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
According to a report in Axios, Trump aides showed him Democrats live-tweeting the event and lamenting that Trump was essentially winning in the format. In front of a Republican audience in New Hampshire, Trump enjoyed applause and laughter as he fielded questions about not accepting the 2020 election results, the January 6 Capitol riot, his handling of classified documents, the recent verdict that held him liable for defamation and battery against accuser E. Jean Carroll, and an array of political issues that could define a 2024 matchup with President Biden. His clashes with moderator Kaitlan Collins delighted the partisan crowd, but many media liberals were infuriated at CNN for platforming him at all.
During the first commercial break, Trump aide Jason Miller showed the former president tweets like one from Ocasio-Cortez that said "CNN should be ashamed of themselves" and "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."
"Trump, who had been getting miffed at Collins' persistent questioning, went out all pumped up for the second block," Axios reported. He continued to spar with Collins, at one point calling her "nasty."
Ocasio-Cortez didn't stop attacking CNN after that, telling MSNBC that night the network made a "profoundly irresponsible decision." The backlash hasn't ended, as CEO Chris Licht has defended the town hall to upset staffers. CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy has reportedly considered resigning, or thinks he could be fired, after he blasted his own network for how the town hall was conducted.
Trump was also shown tweets like one from former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who wrote it was "shaping up to be a clear win for Trump." Trump is currently considered the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Trump said CNN "did the right thing" by hosting him for a town hall Wednesday night, saying he "got the word out to millions of people that would generally not hear" his point of view on a number of campaign issues.
"CNN is taking a lot of heat," Trump said.
CNN BLASTED BY ITS OWN ANALYST FOR TRUMP TOWN HALL: ‘GUY WHO TRIED TO GET ME KILLED’
"I think CNN did the right thing by putting me on—all you have to do is look at their fantastic ratings," Trump said.
He added: "It was an honor to do it."
While many CNN staffers were angered by the town hall, some other insiders defended it and said it was proper to give Trump a platform and press him with questions. One insider said the format was "messy" but it was important to hear him in his own words, calling his bombastic style "radioactive to moderates."
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Fox News' Brooke Singman and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
