All posts tagged "cnn"

'Abandoning Donald': CNN data guru reveals Trump's lost crucial voting bloc

CNN data expert Harry Enten revealed how working class Americans have turned on President Donald Trump.

Enten described during a live broadcast on Friday how polling shows working class voters — classified as people who make $50,000-a-year or less — were a major swing vote bloc that helped elect Trump in 2024. But now, they've been left disappointed.

"That was a very important part of his coalition," Enten explained. "But look at this now. Look at the net approval rating that he has with those making under $50K. Down it goes. Look at that. That's a 26 point switcheroo in the latest average of polls. Look at that -24 points. The working class voters are abandoning Donald Trump. Those who helped put him over the top in 2024 are saying, you know what? Not for me right now."

The struggling economy has left them dissatisfied with the president.

"His net approval rating with them right now is absolutely atrocious when it comes to the economy," Enten added. "They have seen what has happened. They have seen what has happened on tariffs. They have seen what has happened with the war. They have seen the gas prices go up. And you just say to yourself, if you're a voter making under $50K, you know what the economy, it is not where we want it to be. And therefore we are turning against Trump on the economy and we are turning against him overall as well."

'Let me finish!' Senate Republican loses his cool as he's fact-checked on his own bill

Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) clashed in a conversation with CNN host Brianna Keilar that left the GOP lawmaker tongue-tied during a live broadcast on Thursday.

The Republican got in the fiery back-and-forth with Keilar after the anchor started asking Husted about the SAVE America Act and raised questions over whether the legislation backed by the Trump administration and conservatives would disenfranchise voters. Husted was reacting after a vote on his voter ID amendment failed, while President Donald Trump has pressured Republicans to end the filibuster, fund the Department of Homeland Security and pass the SAVE America Act.

Keilar pointed to Husted's previous experiences investigating voter fraud, calling out how few cases of fraud would potentially justify the now-stalled legislation.

"If you're going to let me finish so I can get the facts, my bill doesn't have any registration requirements," Husted said. "My amendment that we just voted on, that no Democrat voted on was photo ID exactly what we have in Ohio. The exact same tools that they have in Georgia that they have in other states, Wisconsin, we use the same tools. They still are unwilling to say 'yes' to the most simple part of election integrity. And that is a photo ID."

But Keilar pushed back — and kept cutting off the senator.

"Can you be a little clear on that?" Keilar asked, pressing the noticeably frustrated lawmaker again while they both continued to interrupt each other.

'Train wreck': Senator fed-up as 'flailing' Trump admin can't keep its Iran story straight

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) pointed out on Wednesday that after he questioned National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, it appeared that the Trump administration still couldn't get its story straight on what prompted the Iran war.

The top Democrat and veteran spoke with CNN anchor Kasie Hunt after the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with Gabbard and several other senior intelligence officials, who were asked about global threats as the Trump administration has continued to send mixed messages about the military operation in the Middle East and its objectives.

Lawmakers pressed the administration members to clarify whether the Trump administration knew the pending economic fallout, including rising gas prices or the Iranian regime's move to close the vital shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz. They also wanted clarification over claims that Iran posed an "imminent threat," something the Trump administration has cited in the last several weeks.

Hunt asked Kelly if the Trump administration had underestimated how Iranians would respond to the military strikes.

"They're flailing. This has been a train wreck," Kelly said. "They have not been able to tell the American people, you know, why we are in this fight. You know, what is the strategic goal? What is the plan? What's the timeline? How do you get out of it? And today we were trying to figure out what did the president know and when did he know it? And was he briefed on something pretty basic, which was the Strait of Hormuz, whether or not the Iranians would try to shut it down. And we've gotten different answers from the White House."

Kelly also pointed out how the word "imminent" means something is about to happen, yet the Trump administration had gone back and forth, saying Iran was expecting to strike the United States and its allies in "the near future," which is not what the word "imminent" actually means.

"And I even got to the point I was trying to make this very simple for the DNI, for Tulsi Gabbard," Kelly said. "Was there a request for a brief, or did you offer a brief on the Strait of Hormuz? I didn't even ask her if it was given or what was in it. She would not even answer that question."

He explained that getting to the truth hasn't been a problem with just Gabbard, but also with other Trump cabinet members and White House insiders.

"And this is what happens when you put a lot of yes people in an administration where their number one priority is to please the commander in chief," Kelly added. "And when you do that, this is why this is a lot different than Donald Trump's first term with a lot of very professional people around him. This is what you get. You get a lot of non-answers, you get a lot of just trying to get around some pretty basic things."

CNN's Dana Bash taken aback as Senate hearing devolves into 'Real Housewives' episode

CNN host Dana Bash cracked a joke on Wednesday as the heated hearing for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) developed into a fiery back-and-forth similar to the popular reality show franchise.

The broadcaster dropped the Bravo reference after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) faced off with Mullin over whether he was the right person to lead the Department of Homeland Security after the nominee approved of a violent attack against the Kentucky Republican. Mullin, who President Donald Trump has selected to replace outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, was grilled by Paul and other senators in a series of tough questions about his anger, temperament and concerns over his "classified work" outside the United States.

"Back with my panel meanwhile, on the Real Housewives of the U.S. Senate, this is, you know, I mean, it's actually, it is a serious issue that Rand Paul is trying to get at, which he said is, you know, character and that questioning whether he has anger issues," Bash said.

Paul has threatened to cancel his vote to approve Mullin for the DHS job.

"It was also noteworthy that Senator Mullin brought with him his now friend, Sean O'Brien, the head of the Teamsters, who sat right within camera shot because one of the reasons why people first learned of Senator Mullin is when he almost got into a fistfight with Mr. O'Brien when Senator Mullin was asking him questions at a hearing they smoked the peace pipe — metaphorically — they are now friends," Bash said. "And so there's no question in my mind that that's why he had O'Brien back there because he knew what was coming from Rand Paul."

Jeanine Pirro's 'extraordinary temper tantrum' floors CNN legal expert

Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal expert Elie Honig reacted Friday to comments from Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who was furious during an impromptu press conference following a major legal blow to the Trump administration.

Honig described the legal impact after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg granted the order, agreeing with the Fed that Trump's repeated attacks on Fed chair Jerome Powell indicate the investigation into the Federal Reserve's building renovation was pretextual and politically motivated.

"So first of all, that press conference in itself was extraordinary," Honig said. "Ordinarily, whenever you see a U.S. Attorney call a press conference and address the cameras, it's because there's been an indictment or a conviction or a sentence. I don't think I've ever seen a U.S. attorney or an attorney general call a press conference to complain about a ruling that he or she did not like. That was essentially a public temper tantrum."

Honig also fact-checked some of what Pirro said during the unusual press conference.

"You heard Jeanine Pirro say that this judge, Judge Boasberg, is a quote 'activist judge,''" Honig said. "This judge was elevated to the district court by Barack Obama. But before that, he was put on the local D.C. Superior Court by George W. Bush. And in this judge's past, he has actually denied a motion years ago to try to get Donald Trump's tax returns. He ruled in favor of Donald Trump on those tax returns. And then finally, most fundamentally, we just heard Jeanine Pirro complain that the grand jury subpoena is an important tool of prosecutors, which it is. You heard Jeanine Pirro say that the judge 'has taken that tool away from us.' That's not quite right."

Honig clarified what Boasberg said.

"Now the bar is very low here," Honig said. "But what the judge has said is you don't have absolute free rein to issue whatever grand jury subpoenas you want. The judge was right about that. There is a very low bar that prosecutors have to clear, very low, however, in this case, Judge Boasberg said you simply have not cleared that. And in the opinion. Judge Boasberg says there is a mountain of evidence that there is bad faith behind this investigation intended to pressure the Fed and on the other hand, there is, quote, 'essentially zero evidence of a crime.' So that's really important to keep in mind when we're digesting Pirro's comments right there."

CNN anchor cuts off Jim Jordan as exchange gets testy: 'No one's talking about that'

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt was noticeably annoyed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) during a fiery interview Thursday.

Hunt was asking Jordan to comment on the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran and the Trump administration's objectives and rising gas prices when the conversation got heated.

"Well, I don't know for sure but look, we want all the above," Jordan said. "We want low gas prices. We want Iran not to have nuclear capability, and we want this thing resolved as soon as possible. But I think the American people have common sense and they understand to stop this regime that for 47 years has killed Americans, killed Israelis, killed others, and killed a number of their own people to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon is a worthwhile objective. And President Trump is committed to achieving that goal. And if that means prices go up for a short time, I think Americans understand. We can live with that. But in the end, we want all that to happen and we want it all to happen in in as quick as time as it possibly can."

Hunt then pushed back on Jordan's claims.

"So you say we should be willing to live with higher prices," Hunt said. "Would you say to your constituents in Ohio this is worth sending their sons and daughters to the Middle East potentially to put their lives on the line, to achieve what you just laid out?"

Jordan appeared frustrated by Hunt's question.

"Do we want this regime and all they have done, the killing of American servicemen over the last 47 years, the killing of Israelis, the killing of others, the taking of thousands of lives of their own? Do we want them to have a nuclear weapon?" Jordan responded. "I think the Americans say that is something we need to stop."

Hunt pushed back again, cutting off Jordan and asking if it was necessary to put American troops on the ground in Iran to stop the regime.

"We need, again - no one's talking about that," Jordan said. "What they're talking about is, is it reaching the objective of making sure this regime doesn't get nuclear capability?"

"So how far would you go to achieve that objective?" Hunt asked.

The Trump MAGA media monopoly is here — but you can still stop it

Last Sunday, CBS’s erstwhile flagship newsmagazine, 60 Minutes, opened with an extended adulatory interview of Reza Pahlavi, son of the late exiled Shah of Iran, whom Trump presumably is auditioning to be Iran’s post-invasion leader.

Although Pahlavi is in Paris and hasn’t lived in Iran for nearly a half-century, CBS’s Scott Pelley fed the exiled prince softball questions and allowed him to avoid talking about his father’s record of brutal repression. Pelley even added, in a wishful voiceover, that “Pahlavi told us that there are units within the military and the police that would turn on the hardline government. He says that many but not all troops could be given amnesty in a process of national reconciliation.”

This isn’t news. It’s pablum from the White House. 60 Minutes was once a reliable source of tough reporting. Now it’s becoming a shill for the Trump regime.

It soon could get far worse. CBS News is on the verge of becoming part of the largest pro-Trump media monopoly in America.Two of the nation’s biggest news organizations — CBS and CNN — along with CBS entertainment (home to Stephen Colbert) and Comedy Central (home to Jon Stewart) and HBO (John Oliver) and TikTok (where 1 out of 5 Americans now get their news) — are all about to become one giant mega-media monopoly under the control of Trump allies and suck-ups: multibillionaire Larry Ellison and his son, David.

It’s not too late to stop this, and I’ll tell you how in a moment, but I’d like you to pause and imagine how readily this new pro-Trump media giant can mislead America about what Trump is doing and silence criticism of Trump.

It could make Rupert Murdoch’s media empire of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post look scrupulous by comparison.

Trump cares more about TV news than he does about his presidency. In fact, TV news is his presidency. He chose his cabinet members on the basis of their total loyalty to him and how they look and sound on TV. He spends all day watching coverage of himself on TV. And now he’s on the verge of having effective control over a gigantic media monopoly.

I don’t believe Stewart or Oliver will be silenced, but their contracts may not be renewed. After all, look at what CBS did to Colbert, whose show will end in May.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the algorithm on TikTok is adjusted to reduce Trump criticism.

And a small army of producers and correspondents at CNN are likely to be more careful about what they report. Stories critical of Trump may be axed, as is now occurring at the late, great CBS News.

How did this happen? Think greed, money, power, and Trump.

Trump and the Ellisons take over Warner Bros. Discovery

When the dark history of this sordid era is written, among the most shameful culprits — who put making humongous amounts of money for themselves above the common good — will be Larry and David Ellison; Shari Redstone, former owner of Paramount; and David Zaslav, the current CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Zaslav is now being lauded by the business community as a genius for selling Warner Bros. Discovery (in turn the owner of CNN, CNN International, and HBO) to the Ellisons’ for $111 billion, more than double its valuation in September. But he’s couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the common good. (Zaslav filed to sell just over $114 million worth of Warner Bros. stock less than a week after Warner Bros. clinched the deal.)

Why would the Ellisons spend billions (and go deep into debt) to buy Warner Bros. Discovery? Wealth and power — along with additional wealth and power that Trump can deliver.

Larry Ellison is the second-richest person in America. He owns Oracle, which runs much of the digital backbone of the nation’s commerce and government.

But the Ellisons, per et fils, couldn’t have created their new right-wing media empire without Trump. They needed Trump just as Trump has needed Larry Ellison (who’s been one of Trump’s strongest backers, dating back to the early days of Trump’s presidency).

Even before the Ellisons sweetened their offer for Warner Bros. Discovery and pushed Netflix out of the running, they proclaimed their “confidence in the speed and certainty of regulatory approval” for the deal. Translated: Don’t worry that we’re creating a gigantic media monopoly. Antitrust laws won’t touch us. We’ve got Trump’s Justice Department in the bag.

Trump and the Ellisons got several Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to join in the deal (making me wonder whether such funding will complicate, or compromise, CBS News’s and CNN’s coverage of Trump’s war in Iran and of the Middle East in general).

Trump takes over CNN

For years Trump has blasted CNN as “fake news” and publicly demanded it be bought by new owners. “It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” Trump said in December, signaling he favored the Ellisons’ takeover proposal.

In December, according to the Wall Street Journal , “David Ellison offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner Bros. Discovery, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN.”

To be sure, CNN was moving rightward even before the Ellisons got their hands on it.

In 2022 Zaslav put Chris Licht in charge, who told CNN’s staff he wanted less criticism of Trump and the Republican right — instructing them to stop referring to Trump’s “Big Lie” because he thought the phrase sounded like a Democratic talking point, telling producers to downplay coverage of the first hearing of the congressional committee investigating January 6, and arranging Trump’s infamous CNN town hall, which gave the twice-impeached felonious ex-president a platform to make his comeback.

CNN’s rightward lurch caused CNN’s primetime show ratings to fall 25 percent and contributed to Licht’s firing after just 13 months.

Since then, CNN has undergone rounds of cuts under a series of owners seeking to reduce debt. Paramount and the Ellisons (and Trump) will be its fourth corporate parent in under a decade.

Trump takes over CBS

Last summer, as Redstone and other of Paramount’s previous owners sought federal approval to sell Paramount (owner of CBS) to the Ellisons, they sucked up to Trump by settling Trump’s baseless lawsuit against CBS News for $16 million. (He had sued over how 60 Minutes had edited an interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.)

Late night host Stephen Colbert called the settlement a “big fat bribe,” which it was.

To win further support from Trump for the sale, they announced the end of Colbert’s show (which, as I said, will finish its run in May). They cited economics, but Colbert’s has been the top-rated late night show on network television. The real reason for the cancellation was obvious: Colbert’s biting satirical criticism of Trump.

To cinch the deal, David Ellison promised to end diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at CBS. He hired a right-wing “ombudsman,” Kenneth Weinstein, the former head of a conservative think tank. And he named as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News Bari Weiss, founder of the center-right opinion and news site The Free Press.

Trump was delighted. “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine. And they’ll do the right thing,” he said, praising the acquisition and adding that CBS News had “great potential” with Weiss in charge and that he expected it to be “fairer.”Fairer? Since Weiss took over, almost half of CBS News producers have walked, including legendary veteran Mary Walsh, who began her career under Walter Cronkite. As Walsh explained, “We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that."

Weiss named a bunch of new contributors — many of them retired military or ex-intelligence officials or conservative pundits, including the anti-aging influencer Peter Attia (who has subsequently resigned over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein).

Weiss declared “We love America” a guiding principle and changed the CBS style guide to replace “assigned sex at birth” with “biological sex at birth” when referring to trans people.

She’s also defanged 60 Minutes. In December, Weiss axed a report about Venezuelans being deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison hours before it was set to air — a move that Sharyn Alfonsi, the long-standing correspondent who reported the segment, claimed was for “political” reasons. (The segment later aired on Jan. 18, drawing more than 5 million viewers.)

Weiss replaced Evening News anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois with Tony Dokoupil — best known for hassling the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates for his “extremist” belief that apartheid is morally wrong.

As Trump told Dokoupil recently in a rambling nearly 13-minute interview, had Kamala Harris won the presidential election in 2024, “you probably wouldn’t have a job right now.” Exactly. (Moments after that rambling interview, not incidentally, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt conveyed Trump’s threat that “if it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.”)

How you can help stop this

All this has happened so suddenly that most Americans still haven’t noticed the emergence of this new pro-Trump media empire — CBS, CNN, HBO, Comedy Central, and TikTok — all under the control of Trump cronies Larry and David Ellison.

Billionaires are flipping media companies like playing cards. They don’t give a fig for the common good, or about the producers, correspondents, journalists, and investigative reporters whose lives are being turned upside-down. To them, it’s all about accumulating more wealth and power.

But it’s bad for the economy, bad for our democracy, and bad for America.

The Ellisons’s new mega-media monopoly would never pass muster if America still had antitrust enforcers. Media mergers and acquisitions deserve even stricter scrutiny than normal deals. But Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice is as likely to stop this deal as she is to enforce criminal laws against ICE agents.

So who can stop this?

State attorneys general. They can go to federal court to enforce federal antitrust laws. They have legal standing and necessary resources to challenge this monstrosity.

California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, has already made clear he will take it on.

“The California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review,” he says.

Good luck to him.

I hope other state attorneys general join in. You can help by contacting your state AGs and suggest they join this lawsuit. Contact information for your state’s AG is here.

Please do. The last thing America needs is a giant pro-Trump media monopoly.

Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org

Karoline Leavitt unleashes on CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins to her face: 'Especially you!'

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt directly attacked CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday during the first press briefing since the United States and its ally Israel launched military strikes against Iran.

Leavitt had made several comments criticizing media coverage of the Trump administration and went after reporters at the White House, specifically Collins and CNN.

The Trump administration has presented several different objectives since launching its military operation five days ago — with Cabinet members and even President Donald Trump giving conflicting information over what prompted the attacks and led to the regional conflict that has now left six American troops dead.

"Is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?" Collins asked Leavitt.

"No, it's the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across this country should report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room," Leavitt said. "If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room, and so we can all be very grateful that we have an administration, that we have men and women in our armed forces who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the rest of us in this room and for every American across the country, and for every troop that is based in the Middle East."

Collins pushed back on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said earlier Wednesday. When Leavitt started to clash with her, things became personal.

"But Secretary Hegseth was complaining that it was front-page news about these six service members who were killed," Collins said.

"That's not what the secretary said, and that's not what he meant, and you know it!" Leavitt said, appearing visibly upset by Collins' statement. "You are being disingenuous. There is not — we've never had a secretary of defense who cares more..."

Collins then interjected and read the statement directly from Hegseth, who had claimed that the press had purposefully tried to speak badly about Trump.

"The press only wants to make the president look bad," Leavitt said. As you know, the press, the deaths of U.S. service members under every president. The press does only want to make the president look bad. That's a fact. Especially, you know, listen to me, especially you, and especially CNN, and the secretary of defense cares deeply about our warfighters and our men and women in uniform. He travels all across this country to meet with them, to connect with them. And your network has hardly ever probably reported on that."

Collins responded again to Leavitt's attacks — pointing out that covering the slain military members was not an attempt to attack Trump.

"That's not making the president look bad, that's showcasing that," Collins said.

"And I just told you that the president of the United States will be attending their dignified transfer. So please. So, please," Leavitt said. "We expect you to cover that as you should, Kaitlan. But you and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and tries to use it to make the president look bad. That is an objective fact."

Collins pushed back again.

"I don't think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad," Collins said.

"If you're trying to argue right now that CNN's overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Donald Trump, I think the American people would tend to agree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that as well," Leavitt said.

CNN montage catches Trump falling into same SOTU trap as Biden

CNN unleashed a montage on Wednesday contrasting President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, showing how similar their State of the Union remarks were.

Anchor Kasie Hunt asked her panel to compare the two presidents — both plagued by a rocky economy — and their mirrored comments.

"Well, one comparison, of course, that people have made is to former President Joe Biden, right? Who, of course, spent much of his term trying to use good economic numbers to convince Americans that things were actually better than their own budgets, their own pocketbooks made them feel," Hunt said. "We noticed last night that actually what President Trump brought to the table on some of these economic issues, let's just say it resembled what President Biden brought to the table. We'll show you."

The supercut showed Biden and Trump boasting about the economy and blaming each other, making parallel points throughout their respective speeches.

"I inherited economy that was on the brink, now our economy is literally the envy of the world," Biden said.

"A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest 15 million new jobs in just three years, a record, a record unemployment at 50-year lows," Trump said.

MAGA lawmaker clashes with CNN anchor over Trump's economy: 'Don't cut me off!'

A MAGA lawmaker and staunch ally of President Donald Trump clashed with a CNN anchor Tuesday over his claims that the economy is growing as Americans express their affordability concerns just hours before the president was set to give his State of the Union address.

CNN anchor Erica Hill asked Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) to respond after sharing comments from Sarah Wells, founder and CEO of Sarah Wells Bags, who described the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's tariffs as "a win" for small business owners feeling the weight of the president's levies. Wells explained that in the last year, she has had to lay employees off as a result of the president's trade policy and the difficulties she's faced, estimating up to $500,000 in business losses.

"Do you hear what she's saying?" Hill asked Donalds, who continued to argue that tariffs would benefit middle-class families on their upcoming tax returns and blamed former President Joe Biden for the economy.

"I absolutely hear what she's saying, and I know that President Trump does as well, and this is part of the work that has to be undone from previous administrations," Donalds said.

That's when Hill jumped in, and the two started arguing.

"This is not about previous administrations; this is specifically about the tariffs that the president himself put into place," Hill interjected.

"Hold on, this is important — don't cut me off!" Donalds said. "We're having a nice conversation and now you're cutting me off."