As I wrote the other day, CNN was hoping that they would make President Donald Trump look silly during their town hall with him. They wanted to try to make it about 2020 and Jan. 6, with moderator Kaitlan Collins trying to get him to say things they likely wanted for sound bites. But instead, he cleaned their clocks and completely dominated the town hall. That was despite Kaitlan Collins constantly trying to interrupt him and push the narrative, rather than simply allowing the audience members to ask their questions.

As my colleague Bob Hoge wrote, that triggered people like Jake Tapper, who flipped out in anger at Trump. They truly hated that they were outdone by Trump.

The funny thing was that CNN got hoisted with their own petard. They should have Trump on because it’s news and he’s the front-runner for the nomination. They were likely hoping to trap him. But instead, they trapped themselves. For so many years they appealed to Trump-hatred for their viewership. Now, having pushed that for so long, their viewers can’t accept reality, news, or anything that doesn’t fit that worldview. So they’re outraged at CNN for having him on and many are saying they’re no longer going to watch the network. It’s pretty hilarious.

Listen as Anderson Cooper tries to justify CNN to the angry viewers. He’s scrambling so much he refuses to even name Trump — calling him “that person” so he doesn’t traumatize their poor fragile viewers even more by mentioning “Trump.” So much for objective journalism here, Chris Licht (CEO of CNN). Predictably Cooper just claimed “lie after lie” without dealing with the facts that Trump laid down and how he fact-checked Collins over things like Jan. 6.

Anderson Cooper calling for mutiny after Trump crushed the CNN Town Hall:

"You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again." pic.twitter.com/Tk7M1HDHL4

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 12, 2023

Cooper also tried to ding the audience that they had in their own town hall for daring to agree with what Trump had to say, acknowledging they were a powerful half of the country and they were supporting Trump in that town hall, but suggesting they were deluded. Yet, Cooper also wasn’t living in reality when he claimed that Collins did a “good” job. So who was truly deluded about what went down?

“You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again,” Cooper said. Oh, Licht is going to love that. So how is Licht going to claim his network is “objective” when he has such biased people like this, who tell their audience that they don’t have to watch the network again?

It’s delicious that Cooper is so desperate to justify CNN to the viewers. He treats them like children who have to be told what to think. So let’s not talk about all the times that they gave air to Trump, including in 2016.

April 2016: Not only did Anderson Cooper host a CNN-Trump Town Hall, the network even had the family on along with him. And the network — from its president and all of its anchors and media team — promoted the hell out of it. The outrage now is beyond contrived. https://t.co/d9EZSc8EaX pic.twitter.com/p9cBaPJMat

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) May 12, 2023

It’s funny as anything that the viewers are so mad, so traumatized about hearing a view other than that they espouse in their liberal cocoons.

But one thing that stands out there and is true about what Cooper said: they’re terrified that Trump could win again. That’s what they know and that’s why Democrats are so desperate to throw everything they can at the wall to stop him. That’s why we’re seeing legal cases come out of the woodwork. That’s what CNN thought they were going to do with the town hall. Instead, it only made him more powerful and it’s come back to bite them in the butt.

Not only did Trump walk all over CNN, but he might have helped to further do in their viewership, as well. Now, that’s a great night’s work.