Former CNN Contributors Allege Network Has Become ‘Anti-Trump’ Platform

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, not pictured, at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on May 27, 2019. (Kiyoshi Ota - Pool/Getty Images)

A number of conservative commentators who were formerly CNN contributors have come out to say the network has become a hate-fueled platform against President Donald Trump, with one stating that it “openly despises conservatives” who support the president.

CNN has struggled to keep pro-Trump contributors over the past years, according to a report from Mediaite. The most recent example occurred on May 21 when the network said former contributor Ken Cuccinelli was “no longer” with them after reports emerged that the president was considering him to fill a top Homeland Security position. Cuccinell’s departure further culled the already endangered intellectual diversity at CNN.

In 2017, the network unveiled a new slogan with the company vowing to put “facts first” and reaffirmed that they would not be affected by emotion or bias. But several former contributors for the network disputed their ex-employer following through on that promise.

“Most of us got squeezed out involuntarily,” former Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston told Mediaite. Kingston’s CNN relationship was left to expire earlier this year.

He continued: “I was there for 2 years and was certainly willing to continue. It was clear to me in the end that the Republicans they prefer are anti-Trump Republicans.”

The stage for the Republican presidential debate, hosted by CNN, at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, Nev., on Dec. 15, 2015. (L.E. Baskow/AFP/Getty Images)

Economic analyst Stephen Moore, also a former CNN contributor, was fired earlier this year after Trump nominated him to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve. Moore later withdrew from consideration after other media, including his former employer, dug into his personal history, unsealing his divorce records and unearthing humor columns he wrote nearly two decades ago.

“Who are the Republicans?” Moore told Mediate in reference to the those still remaining on CNN. “John Kasich? He hates Trump!”

Moore told The Epoch Times previously that he was astonished by the opposition he triggered from the Democrats and establishment media.

“I was surprised that the left was so stirred up by this. It actually is a little bit flattering, really,” Moore said.

One former contributor, Bryan Lanza, who left the network in 2018 and who had been a deputy communications director for Trump’s presidential campaign, said that CNN’s only identity is “being anti-Trump; not conservative vs. liberal.”

“If you hate Trump, you tune to CNN to validate your hatred,” Lanza told Mediate. “Not sure it’s a winning formula and I’m validated by their last place performance against other outlets.”

Buck Sexton, a conservative talk radio host and former contributor at CNN, said that during his time at the company, he had tried to include more conservative viewpoints into panel discussions. He felt the debates were often one-sided.

“People ask me ‘how could you ever have worked at CNN?’ and I tell them, honestly, that CNN has always been Left of center, but it used to have on real conservatives and, while not friendly to them, was at least interested in a serious exchange of ideas,” Sexton wrote on Twitter in March.

“But Trump broke CNN,” he added.

Trump, a frequent critic of the network’s coverage of his presidency, pointed out the low ratings of CNN in a May Twitter post.

“Wow! CNN Ratings are WAY DOWN, record lows. People are getting tired of so many Fake Stories and Anti-Trump lies,” he wrote, in part.