Geraldo Rivera Pays The Price After Criticizing Trump At Town Hall

OPINION:  This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion

Geraldo Rivera, a leftist media figure and a contributor to Fox News, received additional backlash on social media for a post that criticized a section of the CNN town hall hosted by former President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Rising network star Kaitlin Collins, co-host of the morning show, served as the event’s moderator. Rivera’s critique of Trump was connected to a comment he made about Collins during the event when she disputed one of his points.

Trump responded, “You’re a nasty person,” drawing laughter and applause from the overwhelmingly receptive New Hampshire crowd.

Responding to Trump’s name calling of Collins, Rivera tweeted: “I’ve liked President Trump over the decades through thick and thin, even after I pledged never again to support him after January 6th. But when he called Kaitlan Collins ‘nasty’ I felt like spitting. It was so unmanly.”

A number of Twitter users commented in response to Rivera’s statement.

Collins, 31, will take over the network’s 9 PM ET primetime slot, which Chris Cuomo previously inhabited before he was sacked, CNN CEO Chris Licht was getting ready to announce after the town hall.

“CNN, which has endured some of the worst ratings in its history under Zaz’s hand-picked C.E.O., Chris Licht, is now poised for a brief taste of the same power and influence that it enjoyed in the old days. And it will achieve that massive audience, of course, via the very same mechanism that fueled the Zucker years: Donald Trump,” Puck News reported.

The announcement of Collins’ new position came after some people called the Trump event “disastrous.”

CNN spokesperson pushed back against the criticism of Collins’ promotion, in a statement made to Mediaite: “Tonight, Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked tough, fair, and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner. That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

However, a lot of left-wing critics blasted the network for inviting Trump as the campaign for the 2024 elections gets underway.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, ripped CNN in a tweet saying, “CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this “town hall” to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host. This falls squarely on CNN. Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead, they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.”

Nevertheless, the event was a ratings success for CNN, which has long lagged behind Fox News and MSNBC’s left-wing rival.

More than 3 million people watched the town hall, which was more than three times the usual number for the prime-time slot, according to The Hill.

Regarding CNN’s invitation to appear on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote:“People are criticizing CNN for giving me a Forum to tell the TRUTH. I believe it was a very smart thing that they did, with Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time. It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!”

“The Radical Left screamed, ‘Take it down, take it down,’ during the Show, because they saw that I was making so many important points on the Border, Energy Independence, the Afghanistan Catastrophe, Inflation, the Economy, Russia/Ukraine, and so much more. Many minds were changed on Wednesday night by listening to Common Sense, and sheer ‘Brilliance,’” Trump noted in a follow-up post.

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