Host of CNN's Trump Town Hall Is About to Get Career-Changing News: Report
According to reports, CNN is poised to offer morning anchor Kaitlan Collins the time slot of her former colleague Don Lemon in the network’s prime-time lineup.
Lemon was demoted from a prime-time slot last year and was later seated next to Collins and network anchor Poppy Harlow on “CNN This Morning.”
On April 24, the network fired him after 17 years on the job, following dismal ratings and a series of scandals.
According to multiple reports, CNN CEO Chris Licht might offer Collins a role in the big seat as early as next week, which could make her the new face of the network.
Hours prior to her much-criticized performance as the moderator of Wednesday’s town hall in New Hampshire, which featured former President Donald Trump and a live audience, Dylan Byers of Puck News reported Licht was eyeing Collins for prime time.
Per Byers’ Wednesday reporting, the coming promotion would be offered regardless of how she performed against Trump on Wednesday.
“Kaitlan’s offer is not contingent on her performance at tonight’s town hall, but, given the Trump X-factor, those 90 minutes have the potential to modify, accelerate, or stifle the arc of her career,” Byers said, according to Mediaite.
Byers added, “At the very least, her performance tonight will set the tone for a new Collins era at CNN, which, barring any f***-ups, will run at least through the 2024 presidential election.”
Collins has been widely panned for how she handled herself throughout the event.
The Alabama native constantly interrupted Trump and recycled old narratives surrounding the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
She also repeated a number of falsehoods in her attempts to real-time “fact-check” the former president.
Collins was untruthful about Trump’s attempts to deploy National Guard troops to Washington on Jan. 6 and also about how many miles of border wall were constructed throughout his term:
What @kaitlancollins just said is a LIE.
Christopher Miller said UNDER OATH that President Trump did approve the national guard, and the DC Mayor refused the order.
I’ll have more to say after the Town Hall on CNN.
REMINDER 👇🏿 https://t.co/sWitSXLFq0
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) May 11, 2023
Kaitlan Collins flat out lied while fact checking Trump on Multiple occasions..
Here is # 1.
Collins Claimed Trump only built 55 miles of Border wall.
FALSE
Here are the real numbers from Customs and Border Patrol. pic.twitter.com/sFvNODoTbk
— The American Tribune (@TAmTrib) May 11, 2023
Her hostility toward Trump is unlikely to win over any conservative viewers who might have hoped CNN was making an attempt to court them under the direction of Licht.
Meanwhile, many people on the left were furious the network offered Trump a platform and expressed their anger at Collins after she lost control of the event.
But Licht was impressed by Collins, he said on a conference call Thursday morning, former network host Brian Stelter reported:
“You do not have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say that we didn’t get them,” Licht tells staffers, many of whom are angry about the town hall. “Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news. Made a LOT of news.” And “that is our job.”
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 11, 2023
The New York Post previously reported Licht has eyed Collins as CNN’s new “it girl” for some time.
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