ANALYSIS: Comparing CNN’s 2024 Town Halls: Trump, Haley, Pence

Former President Donald Trump (L) speaks at a CNN Town Hall with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on May 10, 2023, in a still from video. (CNN/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

News Analysis

Over the span of five weeks, CNN conducted three town halls with GOP presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and former Vice President Mike Pence—showcasing how the network might treat the candidates this election cycle and how the candidates conduct themselves in response to an outlet known to be hostile toward Republicans.

The May 10 Trump town hall, moderated by anchor Kaitlan Collins, was as intense as the candidate himself.

The event, which featured New Hampshire Republican and undecided voters, began with moderator Kaitlan Collins confronting Trump about the 2020 election, which he continued to say was stolen from him, prompting Collins to rebut every time Trump repeated the claim.

Collins also asked him about the aftermath of that election, including his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, when protesters breached the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

For the first 20 minutes or so, the event consisted of questions not related to kitchen-table issue.

It felt more like the primary and general election debates, where Trump has a history of being combative, than a town hall.

The tone exemplified Trump’s demeanor and his love for the spotlight, and CNN’s desire to chase ratings, as almost 3.31 million people tuned in.

It also demonstrated that CNN has not moved toward the center, which was the goal of now-ousted CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht.

Jon Nicosia, a media analyst who was an editor for Mediaite, told The Epoch Times that it “wasn’t a town hall” but rather “a slaughter and revenge.”

In a Twitter direct message, Nicosia went on to say, “It has more comparisons to [a] vindictive gladiator fight than anything resembling political discourse. Trump, as an extension of his base, wanted to blow up the network in real-time. (Likely sending countless New York-based ‘journalists’ to grief counseling afterward) and blew up the C-suite of CNN and Licht’s career as a bonus.”

Licht left CNN on June 7 following unfavorable media coverage, including a 15,000-word June 2 article in The Atlantic.

The June 4 event with Haley, moderated by anchor Jake Tapper, felt like a conventional town hall. There was no combativeness between the moderator and the candidate.

Tapper and Haley covered a lot of ground and the focus was on issues of importance to everyday Americans, from the economy to foreign policy.

Tapper did ask Haley a few questions related to her former boss. The host asked about Trump congratulating North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un on his country joining the World Health Organization executive board.

To start, Tapper asked Haley to make her case for the White House and immediately turned it over to the audience—whereas Collins, in the Trump town hall, had a contentious back-and-forth exchange after she first asked him to make his case for why he should be put back into the Oval Office.

Haley’s first audience question was about the economy, whereas the first one in the Trump town hall was about his habit of talking about election fraud.

Haley stuck to current issues and Tapper was respectful, even asking a handful of softball questions, in what appeared to be CNN dialing it down after the tumultuous session with Trump.

The June 7 town hall with Pence, moderated by anchor Dana Bash, was likewise less contentious than the session with Trump.

While Pence had an even keel throughout the event, Bash asked a lot of questions about Trump, including the Jan. 6 topic. Pence said said he would be “inclined to pardon” some of the participants from that day.

Bash also asked Pence about the allegations of Trump allegedly mishandling classified material, for which he would later be indicted.

Compared to the Haley town hall, the Pence town hall featured more questions about Trump.

“After the raucous nature of the Trump town hall and how it dramatically accelerated the downfall of now-departed CNN boss Chris Licht, it’s clear the network took steps such as making clear that the audience’s make-up was going to be Republican and the questions would be from their voters (given this is, as of now, about the primary, not necessarily the general election),” Curtis Houck, the managing editor of the conservative media watchdog NewsBusters, told The Epoch Times.

“They also made sure to be more forceful in pressing the candidates, as we saw with Dana Bash to Mike Pence on transgenderism,” he continued.

Pence stated that transgender surgery should be prohibited for those under the age of 18.

Bash pressed Pence on the question of whether the decision for minors to get such surgery should be left to parents given the GOP platform of being in favor of parental rights.

Pence, calmly, reiterated his stance.

As it pertained to the differences between the town halls, Houck noted that “Haley and Pence have far calmer demeanors and are less inclined to get into personal spats with the moderator.”

“And, because it’s CNN and they still try to find a Trump angle in as many issues and stories as possible, Haley and Pence’s town halls had at least a moderate focus on Trump (with the latter having Trump hangover most of the event) whereas Trump’s town hall was, well, about him,” he added.

Whereas the Trump town hall got millions of viewers, the one with Haley got 562,000 and the one with Pence 632,000. The ratings proved that Trump is the biggest attraction not only in the GOP field but also on CNN.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.