Howard Stern said Donald Trump’s controversial town hall on CNN last week was “an interesting thing to look at” — and suggested that the struggling cable network stage similar events with other GOP presidential hopefuls.
“I don’t know, I assumed it was f–king — really f–king interesting and entertaining,” he said throughout the Monday edition of “The Howard Stern Show.”
“Everyone had their t-ts in a twist over Trump being on there [CNN], and the audience was like laughing and, you understand, cheering him on, and a number of people got upset about it,” Stern said.
“I’m pretty sure anybody who didn’t like Trump hated him much more after that,” he added, though Trump’s “fans love him,” which Stern said made the May 10 town hall “an interesting thing to look at.”
He then said CNN should give the opposite possible 2024 GOP nominees — namely Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley — their moment on stage.
“They need to have all of the candidates in the event that they want,” Stern said during his SiriusXM radio show.
Nonetheless, Stern did criticize CNN for its live audience, which was made up of Recent Hampshire Republican and undecided voters.
“I don’t know, I assumed it was f–king — really f–king interesting and entertaining,” Howard Stern said throughout the Monday edition of his SiriusXM radio show.Kevin Mazur
“I assumed it was really weird after they were laughing at the girl who just won a sexual assault case. I assumed that was really f–king strange,” Stern said during Monday’s radio show, referencing a Manhattan jury’s May 9 decision — just 24 hours before the town hall event — that the previous president is accountable for sexual abuse and defamation.
The choice got here in a federal suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, accusing Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room a long time ago after which defaming her when he publicly denied her allegations.
Carroll was awarded $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation. The nine-person jury cleared Trump of the rape claim.
Stern continued: “A few of those people within the audience looked a little bit bizarre, if you happen to know what I mean. Like, perhaps one or two had some issues at birth, but I don’t know.”
CNN’s hosting Trump in network boss Chris Licht’s effort to make CNN less partisan hasn’t paid off in rankings.
On Friday, the embattled cable news network drew just 335,000 average viewers during its three-hour primetime bloc — a steep dip from the three.3 million viewers Trump’s town hall drew in only two days earlier.
During last week’s town hall, Trump reiterated conspiracy theories, including that the 2020 election was “rigged,” and pulled out receipts to prove his response to Jan. 6 didn’t encourage the rebellion.
CNN’s own longtime anchor Anderson Cooper bashed the network for filling the live audience with Trump-supporting voters.
Cooper said throughout the opening monologue of his CNN show “Anderson Cooper 360°”: “The audience that upset you? That’s a sampling of about half the country. They’re your relations, your neighbors they usually are voting, and lots of said they’re voting for him.”
He also cited Carroll’s suit, saying “it was definitely disturbing to listen to that audience — young and old, our fellow residents, individuals who love their kids and go to church — laugh and applaud his lies and his continued defamation of a lady who, in accordance with a jury of his peers, he sexually abused and defamed.”
CNN aired the presidential town hall with Donald Trump on May 10. It brought in a record 3.3 million views for the struggling network.CNN
Cooper went on to inform viewers they “they’ve the ability to do something” about Trump’s likelihood of getting back to work within the Oval Office. Based on the Conservative Political Motion Conference straw poll, Trump’s the popular candidate for 62% of right-wing voters.
Trump’s support was a large margin above No. 2, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had 20% support despite the indisputable fact that he has yet to announce his 2024 candidacy.
Cooper, CNN’s most-watched anchor, also told his viewers that they “have every right to be offended and never watch this network again.”
It seemed a hefty portion of his audience took him up on the offer, as Friday’s edition of the Cooper-hosted “AC360” at 8 p.m. drew 447,000 viewers — well below his usual average.
The identical day, CNN’s rivals at Fox News won the primetime battle, averaging 1.44 million viewers, while MSNBC had a 1.08 million.
