Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough disclosed on Friday that Chris Licht, former CEO of CNN, had contacted him the week before CNN’s contentious town hall with former President Donald Trump, urging him against going through with it.
Scarborough mentioned the CNN town hall broadcasted last May during a spirited discussion on the media’s approach to covering Trump in the upcoming 2024 election season.
“Go back to that CNN town hall meeting and I’ll just say, Chris Licht called me a week beforehand, said, ‘What should I do?’ I said, ‘Don’t do it.’ And he said, ‘But if I have to do it, what do I do?’ I said, ‘Ask him one question.’ And I will tell you, this worked for me politically, and when I was in debates with people, you ask one question: ‘Did Joe Biden win the election?’” Scarborough said.
“He goes off. You know he’s going to go off. This is Elvis ’77. We know his act, right? And then you follow up and say, ‘But 63 federal courts said you lost this election. Are they lying?’ He goes on and goes on. ‘But the United States Supreme Court said — your Supreme Court — said you lost the election. Are they lying?’ And you just keep going.”
Following a scathing profile in The Atlantic, Licht’s ouster in June was partly attributed to the Trump town hall and various other factors related to Licht’s management of political coverage and on-air talent.
Joe Scarborough went after another Trump town hall event that Fox News did. Scarborough noted that co-moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum conducted a “softball event.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
