Last night CNN’s interview with Donald Trump went awry when the broadcaster could not keep up with fact-checking the former president.
That’s according to WSHU Public Radio’s managing editor Terry Sheridan, who was speaking to Pat Kenny following the backlash the US news network received for their interview with Mr Trump.
“[CNN] were facing criticism before it, they were facing criticism on Twitter during it, and they have been facing criticism after it,” he said.
“Even though Kaitlan Collins tried to fact-check in real-time, they basically turned 70 minutes of broadcast airtime over to the former president,” he said.
‘A stormy relationship’
Mr Sheridan said Mr Trump had not been on CNN, either via interview or townhall format, since his 2016 presidential run.
“He had been attacking them throughout his presidency,” he said.
“Afterwards, he had a stormy relationship with Kaitlin Collins when she was a White House correspondent.
“She was banned from either attending or from asking questions because he didn't like the tone of her questions.”
Kaitlan Collins reports 2020 US presidential election results, Joe Biden and Donald Trump (Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg 10+ / Alamy Stock Photo)‘A nasty woman’
Mr Sheridan said Ms Collins had an “impossible job” of fact-checking Mr Trump while carrying out the interview.
“She challenged him at several points,” he said.
“At one point it did get testy when they were talking about the documents in Mar-a-Lago.
“Trump called her a nasty woman.
“People are saying yes she could have done better, but she had an impossible job as one reporter trying to fact-check Donald Trump in real-time.”
The audience
Mr Sheridan said the audience was made up of “hand-picked Republicans or Republican-leaning independents” who supported Mr Trump during the interview.
“They all cheered and laughed when he was talking about [E Jean Carroll],” he said.
“If you look at what you would call ‘Trump Twitter’ – even though he's not on [it], his followers are – they say that he destroyed, he won.”
“On the one hand, he didn't present anything new that he did in 2020.
“He's still running on the fact that the election was stolen, he's still running on the fact that January 6th was a great day.
“Waking up this morning in America, it reinforces what people already viewed [as] the views that they had of Donald Trump.
“The thinking is, if you didn't like Trump in the first place, what you saw last night was not going to change your mind.”
You can listen back here:
