Little more than a day after being found liable for battery and defamation of a woman who says he raped her in the 1990s, former President Donald Trump is scheduled to take questions in a live town-hall event on the news network whose journalists he called “ the enemy of the people” while running for the presidency and serving in office.
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Before the jury foreperson announced the verdict at a courtroom in lower Manhattan Tuesday, the immediate stakes for Trump – and CNN – were already high. Now they are even higher.
For months, Trump has been furious at Fox News, which serves as a pillar of the Republican Party and its controlling owners Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who have been auditioning Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a GOP presidential candidate before Fox audiences.
Just hours before Tuesday's verdict in E. Jean Carroll's civil suit against him, Trump wrote an angry post on his Truth Social account inveighing against the Murdochs, Fox corporate director Paul Ryan ("Worst Republican Speaker ever") and their premier newspaper, the Wall. Street Journal, as well as Fox, which he wrote was "rapidly disintegrating." (Indeed, its primetime ratings have plunged since it fired star Tucker Carlson late last month, though Fox officials suggest they will rebound once a permanent replacement is named.)
The CNN appearance was intended to allow Trump to demonstrate his independence from a network often favored by his fans. It hasn't been a complete Fox blackout; Trump has given interviews this year to conservative Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, as well as Carlson before his departure.
CNN has a lot to prove, as well. In his first year on the job, chairman and CEO Chris Licht has sought to put his mark on the network by draining it of the relentless criticism of Trump in response to the crises and controversies that defined his administration. Many Republicans argue that CNN had become too ideological.
Licht canceled Brian Stelter's media criticism show Reliable Sources and shifted primetime star Don Lemon to the morning. Both hosts had been outspoken against Trump. Lemon was fired this spring after accusations of sexism both on air and towards his female co-hosts. Lemon and his attorney contest those characterizations. Licht has told his staff they are re-establishing the channel's original identity.