“Our government … teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”
– Justice Louis Brandeis

“The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.”
– Justice Hugo Black

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10: NAJ screen shot

The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — If it’s the last thing I have to say here, let me be crystal clear. Donald Trump is the most corrupt, criminal politician by far in American history and should not be given a platform for running for president again on any network that claims to be operating in the interest of American democracy.

Rich boy broadcaster Anderson Cooper got it half right when he tried to defend CNN’s Republican town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday featuring Trump and his coterie of lies.

“You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again,” Cooper said on his show late Thursday.

The American people should #BoycottCNN and make sure the corporate management knows they will not get away with this again, or face going out of business, just like many of the newspapers and news sites that are dying because of drastic changes in the economy for news in these trying times.

As reported by The Washington Post, Cooper defended his network’s widely reviled town hall with Trump, condemning “ridiculous lies” Trump told at the event. But he also admonished critics who feel that CNN should have never held it.

“But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?” Cooper asked.

In Trump’s case, let’s hope so. He has his own media channel, and Fox News. Why should CNN give him a platform for his lies? The only reason is money. CNN made a deal with the devil Trump to insure it receives millions in political advertising money over the next year and a half as Trump tries to make a political comeback as president.

If the Republican Party is stupid enough to nominate this criminal as its candidate again in 2024, it will be the end of the Republican Party.

CNN and its chief executive, Chris Licht, were rightly barraged with backlash from viewers, journalists at other outlets and even some network employees after hosting what one critic called a “predictably disastrous” town hall, during which Trump repeatedly lied despite moderator Kaitlan Collins’s attempts to correct him.

During the 70-minute event, Trump recycled false claims of “a rigged election” in 2020, derailed several of Collins’s questions and at one point called the moderator “a nasty person” while the Republican audience members frequently applauded and laughed out loud.

Trump also used the opportunity to insult writer E. Jean Carroll, whom a New York civil jury ruled this week had been sexually abused and defamed by Trump.

Cooper echoed the disapproval from some of his colleagues as he opened his Thursday-evening show, calling Trump’s attacks and the audience’s laughter and cheers “disturbing.”

“Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on the stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions and predictably continue to spew lie after lie after lie,” Cooper said. “As good a job as Kaitlan Collins did trying to fact-check him, it is impossible to fact-check fully because he lies so shamelessly.”

But the broadcaster ultimately defended CNN’s decision to host the forum, saying that even if audiences don’t align with Trump’s views, they need to keep abreast of his comments in case he is reelected in 2024.

“The man you were so disturbed to see and hear from last night, that man is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president,” Cooper said. “And that audience that upset you, that’s a sampling of about half the country. They are your family members, your neighbors, and they are voting. And many said they’re voting for him.”

Viewers on social media weren’t much impressed with Cooper’s speech.

“Cooper is among the privileged Uber rich who don’t have to live with the consequences they create,” attorney Eric Ruben tweeted.

Even some fans of Trump’s performance panned Cooper’s apologia for the town hall.

“That was almost as bad as Joe Scarborough’s meltdown,” Collin Rugg, who co-owns the right-wing website TrendingPoliticsNews.com, tweeted, referring to the MSNBC host’s morose condemnation of Trump’s behavior on-air.

Although the town hall drew better ratings than usual for CNN’s 8 p.m. news, it attracted only 3.1 million viewers, which was less than last year’s town hall with President Biden, and many of Trump’s town halls on Fox News.

Even New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd seemed to defend CNN in her column on Saturday.

“Patriotism is no longer a premier American virtue. And to a large degree, we have Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch to thank for that,” she wrote.

“Trump always ridiculed people, but when he brought that into the presidential arena, it was like injecting a virus of cruelty into the political bloodstream. When I flip on Fox News at night, I cringe at the way they make fun of President Biden, the sick delight they take in sniping at any perceived infirmity.”

She quotes Mitt Romney for bringing “some rare Republican rectitude” to the Capitol when he was asked about Trump being held liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll trial.

“He just is not suited to be president of the United States and to be the person who we hold up to our children and the world as the leader of the free world,” Romney told CNN’s Manu Raju. (The Utah senator also earlier chided Representative George Santos, saying, “You don’t belong here.”)

“Trump is spiraling into even more of a self-deluded narcissist, if that’s possible. And he’s even more obsessed with numbers — if that’s possible. When he was asked by the terrific Kaitlan Collins if he regretted his actions on Jan. 6, he began rhapsodizing about, and exaggerating, the size of the crowd that day,” she wrote.

“I have never spoken to a crowd as large as this,” he said, adding: “They were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”

“He called one of the most heinous days in American history ‘a beautiful day’,” she wrote. “He called the Black Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, who was trying to break into the House chamber, a ‘thug’.”

“The town hall was enlightening — and frightening. But we needed that reminder to be on full alert, because Trump is not just an unhinged and dangerous extremist; he is also a cunning and dominating insurgent,” she continued. “The argument that the media should ignore Trump and keep him under a bushel basket is ridiculous. You can’t extinguish Trump by not talking to him. He’s always going to find a platform.”

He has a platform already. He’s been allowed back on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. He has a massive email list. We don’t need him on prime time television. Do we?

In arguing that Trump should be allowed on CNN, she quotes Sun Tzu, who stressed that victory depends on knowing the enemy — “Force him to reveal himself.”

“Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, did a skillful job of letting Trump convict himself in the deposition,” she says.

“President Biden needs to see what he’s up against. There are only so many times Biden can say ‘C’mon, man!’ in a debate. The more he sees Trump in action, the less likely he is to be steamrolled. Biden’s team has been blithely underestimating the opponent,” she concludes. “The cascading indictments allow Trump to play the gilt-dipped martyr on an even larger scale.”

Yes, and that is the problem. Joe Biden is fully aware of how corrupt Trump is. He beat him like a drum in the presidential election of 2020.

As corrupt as our Supreme Court is these days too, thanks to Trump, we forget when we had wise men like Justice Louis Brandeis and Hugo Black on the court.

“Our government,” Brandeis once said, “teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

That’s exactly what Trump did for four years in the White House. Are we really ready to give him another shot at doing that again, this time for potentially eight years?

What is the job of the press and media in this situation? To allow corruption on the air?

“The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people,” Justice Hugo Black from Alabama once wrote. “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.”

Putting Trump on the air grants him a major, prime time platform to deceive the people.

The people do not have to fall for this fake definition of free speech and press. They can change the channel for good, and in this case, they should.

Remember what Jon Stewart said on CNN’s “Crossfire” when he condemned the show and got it canceled?

“You are hurting America.”

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