CNN to Trump - HELLO? "You're fired!: A whirling vortex of lies

Echo opinion published in The New York Times:

A ‘Rude and Inaccurate’ Trump at the CNN Town Hall: Reporters at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., watched the live CNN town hall in a separate room at the event.

Credit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

To the Editor:  Re “Trump Repeats False Election Claims at CNN Event” (news article, May 11):

Thank you for your thorough and factual reporting on Wednesday’s CNN town hall at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, with the former guy, President Donald Trump. 

The coverage about the flopped interview summarized each of the mischaracterizations, exaggerations and untruths spoken by Mr. Trump in the Fact Check and related articles.

A Manhattan jury found the former guy President Donald J. Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages. More than a dozen women have accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct over the years, but this is the only allegation to be affirmed by a jury.

Unfortunately, it’s likely that many right-leaning voters drawn to watch the town hall will not be inclined to read them. 

Likewise, the studio audience for the show, evidently chosen to represent Trump supporters, won’t realize or doesn’t care about the damage his rude and inaccurate statements do to the body politic of our country.

CNN made a grievous mistake following through with its plan to air the program after the verdict in the E. Jean Carroll case was announced on Tuesday.

Trump benefited greatly from the undiscriminating and constant coverage of his untruths- litany of lives, in the 2016, election. 

It’s time for responsible print and television journalists to pull the plug and refuse to provide a platform for Trump’s lies and vulgarity.

Jim Linsell in Traverse City, Michigan

Trump the Chump uses his own lying words: the failed CNN propaganda fiasco

An echo opinion by column writer Milan Simonich published in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper:

Ringside Seat:  Let Trump peddle his lies from sea to shining sea?

(Maine Writer- just love this column's name!)

Critics of CNN are everywhere this week. 

Watching CNN's town hall held at St. Anselm's College in Manchester New Hampshire, was an ugly spectacle, in which the former president lied about everything from the 2020 election to the January 6th Capitol attack that he incited.

They say the network bombed by giving Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a forum that was infected with his lies and whining.

In fact, the televised event damaged Trump, though he might not realize it.

The backdrop is more straightforward than the outcome. Former President Trump detests CNN. The network wanted to quiet charges that it’s a liberal counterpoint to Trump’s apologists at Fox (Fake) News and other Republican outlets.

CNN Trump Town Hall: Darcy cartoon

In (a failed attempt) to demonstrate its sense of fair play, CNN hosted a Republican town hall with Trump and voters in New Hampshire (held at a Roman Catholic Saint Anselm's College in Manchester, NH!- I am a Roman Catholic who criticized Saint Anselm's for hosting this lie-a-thon in my social media!).

Trump stuck to his hackneyed script in which he starred as a victim of foul deeds.

Critics say CNN enabled Trump to regurgitate his lies that the 2020, election was rigged for Democrat Joe Biden.

Not so. Anchor Kaitlan Collins (flopped!) worked to hold Trump accountable. She confronted him with hard evidence, such as Trump’s 60 frivolous and failed lawsuits challenging the election results.

Context was absent from most of the complaints about CNN. Alex Sherman of CNBC wrote that CNN “inexplicably allowed a partisan audience to cheer on Trump’s running commentary.”

Inexplicably? Everyone knew a town hall composed entirely of Republicans would be partisan. So what? Trump is running for the Republican nomination.

Another safe bet was many of the town hall’s participants would shout their approval of Trump. But in the big picture, the voices of partisans in the televised event are small.

New Hampshire has 800,000 fewer people than New Mexico. CNN and the rest of the national media bestow extraordinary coverage on New Hampshire because it holds the first presidential primary.

The important fallout from CNN’s event with Trump has little to do with the host state. What matters is the network’s core national audience. It is composed of people who have no respect for Trump based on character flaws.

He reinforced their position with his histrionics and denunciation of Collins. Trump’s false claims about the election serve as inspiration for the silent majority that watched his performance. Now more than ever, as the politicians might say, they want to defeat him.

New Mexico saw a similar reflex action last year. The election for governor was in November, but it was decided four months earlier, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s base was ignited by the ruling ending federal recognition of abortion rights. Every state would once again establish its own laws, a patchwork system that hurts low-income women in Republican strongholds.

Lujan Grisham benefited politically from the ruling. She stayed resolute on abortion rights, saying New Mexico’s government would not decide if a woman can end a pregnancy.

Republican candidate Mark Ronchetti tried to soften his rigid anti-abortion stand in hopes of appealing to independents and swing voters. A former television weatherman, Ronchetti followed his natural instincts by trying to be all things to all people.

The more Ronchetti talked and advertised, the more his waffling drove the opposition. What might have been a tight election turned into a comfortable one for Lujan Grisham. She won by 45,000 votes.

Trump stands a better chance than Ronchetti for one reason only. Governors are elected by popular vote. The Electoral College determines the winner of presidential elections.

Trump lost the popular vote both times he was on the ballot. If he is nominated in 2024, he will lose it again.

The Electoral College gives him hope. Trump took the requisite majority of electoral votes in 2016 with upset victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three states that for 20 years had gone for Democratic presidential candidates.

Both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump had high negatives with voters. Clinton’s exceeded Trump’s in most swing states.

Biden won back Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2020. He also took Georgia and Arizona, states that had also gone for Trump four years earlier.

Trump for more than two years has escaped indictment in Georgia for attempting to steal votes in that state. In a tape-recorded phone call with Georgia’s top election official, Trump tried to bully his fellow Republican into switching thousands of votes to steal Biden’s victory.

None of this matters to Trump’s base. Its members must have pinched their noses as they tuned into CNN for Trump’s town hall.

They were outnumbered by viewers Trump angered when he claimed he could remain in the White House if only his vice president, Mike Pence, disallowed Biden’s electoral votes.

CNN’s show gave the whole country a look at Trump’s ongoing hysterical act. And for that, some would kill the messenger.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news, written by Milan Simonich.

Republican virus! Contaminated by stupidity!

This echo opinion letter was published in the Journal Inquirer a Connecticut newspaper:

For a whole year former #TFG Donald Trump was holding back the truth and spreading misinformation. Thanks to all the false conspiracy theories he and some conservative Republicans were spreading, it may well have cost over 500,000 lives. Trump has the blood of those lives on him. That happened on his watch. (Genocide!)

Vaccines are here and saving lives, as are masks. Unfortunately, a majority of Republicans and misguided citizens chose not to do either, so the pandemic is raging once again.

Children who can’t get vaccinated are falling ill and ending up in intensive-care units. The majority of the cases are occurring in Florida right now, where (stupid!) Governor Ron DeSantis is standing fast against mask mandates in schools, where the virus will spread. He is threatening to withhold salaries and possibly firing people for implementing mask mandates against his wishes.

DeSantis is a direct disciple of Trump, so this is not surprising but it is disgusting.

Doctors decide what is medically right for a child and masks work to keep children safe and alive. Does DeSantis truly not want that?

Nobody has the right to drive drunk and kill someone. And no governor has the right to not allow safety measure to keep kids alive.

These Republican governors will have the blood of children on their hands.

Return sanity to the Republican Party. Enough is enough

From Marcy Klein, Manchester Connecticut