CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump proved so divisive that even its own staff have taken issue with the event - with Christiane Amanpour the latest of the network’s high-profile names to voice their dissatisfaction.
The New Hampshire event drew 3.3 million viewers, who watched as the former president sparred with CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins, whom Mr Trump referred to as a “nasty person”.
Speaking in an address to Columbia Journalism School on Wednesday, Amanpour said if she were Collins, she would have “dropped the mic” as soon as Mr Trump called her nasty, adding that she had spoken with the network’s CEO Chris Licht and told him the ex-president should not have been able “to appear in that particular format”.
“We know Trump and his tendencies, everyone does,” Amanpour reportedly said. “He just seizes the stage and dominates, no matter how much flack the moderator tries to aim at the incoming. It doesn’t often work.”
On the resulting blowback to CNN over the event - which included the question of why the network had hosted Mr Trump shrtly after he was forund liable for sexual abuse - Amanpour said she hoped people would trust CNN again.
“I hope that your trust in us might have been shaken but not shattered. That you believe we can survive and rebuild that trust,” she said, acknowledging that the event had been “an earthquake”.
But Mr Trump has defended his appearance on the network, suggesting it had been a success.
“I was happy to do it,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital. “I got the word out to millions of people that would generally not hear this point of view concerning things such as the border, inflation, the economy, energy independence, the Afghanistan catastrophe and more.”
“CNN is taking a lot of heat,” he added. “I think CNN did the right thing by putting me on – all you have to do is look at their fantastic ratings.”
