Both CNN and MSNBC refused to air former President Trump’s speech to supporters following his court hearing Tuesday where he pled not guilty to 37 federal felony counts stemming from his alleged improper retention of classified records.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper defended the decision not to air the speech Tuesday night, bluntly telling audiences it could be “dangerous” to do so.
“We’re not carrying his remarks live because, frankly, he says a lot of things that are not true and sometimes potentially dangerous,” Jake Tapper told CNN audiences and guest Rep. Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y..
Earlier in the day, Tapper rebuked CNN producers for showing the former president celebrating with his supporters. “The folks in the control room, I don’t need to see any more of that,” Tapper grumbled on-air. “He’s trying to turn this into a spectacle, a campaign ad. That’s enough of that.”
JAKE TAPPER SCOLDS CNN PRODUCERS FOR SHOWING TRUMP WITH MIAMI SUPPORTERS” ‘THAT IS ENOUGH OF THAT’
Tapper went on to warn audiences that CNN would air a clip of Trump defending himself that was full of “untrue and unfounded claims about the charges against him and the people he thinks are behind it.”
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow announced her network had made the same decision during her Tuesday night show.
“We are prepared for his pre-fund-raiser remarks tonight to again, essentially, be a Trump campaign speech. Because of that, we do not intend to carry these remarks live,” she began.
The primetime host suggested this was in order to protect the network’s reputation and journalistic integrity.
“As we have said before in these circumstances, there is a cost to us as a news organization to knowingly broadcast untrue things. We are here to bring you the news. It hurts our ability to do that if we live broadcast what we fully expect in advance to be a litany of lies and false accusations, no matter who says them,” she explained.
Maddow claimed she was not celebrating the decision to censor Trump’s speech and this was not a “glib decision” by the network. She revealed they could reverse that call if Trump said anything “newsworthy.”
CNN’s decision comes on the heels of CEO Chris Licht being fired after months of turmoil behind-the-scenes. Licht irked liberals last month when CNN aired a town hall with Trump. Several of the network’s journalists grumbled publicly about the decision. Liberal viewers were also outraged, costing CNN 32% of its 2023 primetime viewers in the weeks following the town hall.
After his firing, insiders and media watchdogs assessed Licht had been “cancel cultured” by the network after losing the faith of CNN’s liberal employees, who longed for the previous regime’s more partisan journalism.
During his fiery speech to supporters Tuesday night, Trump cast his “sham” federal indictment as “election interference” by the Biden administration, and “the most heinous abuse of power in the history of our country.”
He also blasted Special Counsel Jack Smith as a “deranged lunatic,” and accused President Biden of having “his top political opponent arrested and charged.” He said he had undergone “political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation.”
Despite the unprecedented nature of a former president facing criminal charges, Trump remains the current 2024 front-runner for the GOP.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
