Why Does CNN Want Donald Trump to Be President Again? | Opinion

Remember when tensions got so high between partisans of former President Donald Trump and CNN that explosive devices were sent to the news network?

It doesn't seem that CNN does either. The former president will be participating in a town hall event brought to you exclusively by the cable network. That's despite his frequent attacks on the channel for purveying "fake news", and even a defamation lawsuit over its coverage of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and false claims of voter fraud.

But clearly, it's a new day in Washington. The freshly announced program will be held by CNN at St. Anselm College on Wednesday, May 10.

"The former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate will take questions from anchor Kaitlan Collins and a live audience of New Hampshire Republican and undeclared voters who say they intend to vote in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary," CNN said. The announcement continued by saying that CNN had "a longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates for town halls and political events as a critical component of the network's robust campaign coverage."

CNN also made a point to add that the Trump town hall would be "the first of many in the coming months as CNN correspondents travel across the country to hear directly from voters."

Say what they will, this isn't your "normal" politician-media network relationship. Let us not forget that CNN, then under Jeff Zucker's leadership, played a critical role in making Trump president in 2016 by throwing the spotlight of respectability—and endless air time—on the man who would be president.

Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell tweeted that people close to Trump "say he's taking part in understanding that campaign could get more surrogates on air," adding that "CNN denies such an arrangement."

But let's get real here, folks, because if timing is everything then the timing of this rekindled romance between Trump and new CNN CEO Chris Licht can really be summed up in one word: ratings. Especially now as rival network, Fox News, tries to find its footing after the firing of the network's massive star, (and white nationalist), Tucker Carlson.

CNN isn't likely to acknowledge—or care—that there are much larger issues at stake than ratings. It appears that it's OK with them to offer a public and prominent platform to a man who continues to push the lie that President Joe Biden's victory in 2020 was the result of electoral fraud. To give legitimacy to the man who used that lie to inspire a crowd to attack the seat of American democracy at the center of the nation's capital.

CNN seems not to remember or care that there were more than 1,000 Trump supporters arrested in the aftermath of Jan. 6, and hundreds of convictions secured—some even for the hard-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy.

It seems likely that—as CNN has done over and over in the past—Trump will be treated the same way as a legitimate candidate, despite the damage he has already done to the republic. In fact, CNN will arguably help make Trump a legitimate candidate by pointing its cameras and lights on him once again, in the interest of money—oops, I meant fairness.

Trump has everything to gain from this relationship. He needs to reclaim the Throne of POTUS to secure what he really craves: protection from his long, ongoing, and endless list of legal cases and investigations. As well as the power to inflict harm on his enemies.

On Twitter, columnist and author David Rothkopf called CNN's decision "irresponsible" and writes it best when he says the town hall would be "a sham if it does not lead with the question, 'You led an insurrection against the government of the U.S., why should any American voter support a candidate who sought to undermine the Constitution, institutions and values he was sworn to uphold?'"

Given everything we know about "The Donald's" lack of understanding or interest in protecting American democracy, my core question is why would CNN want to aid and abet his candidacy again? Is it really all about the ratings, the money? Is it a shrunken network seeing a small window to grab a share of Fox's larger audience?

It certainly isn't about fairness or any sense of responsibility.

Anushay Hossain is a writer and a feminist policy analyst focusing on women's health legislation. She is a regular on-air guest at CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, and her writing on politics, gender, and race has been published in Forbes, CNN, USA TODAY, The Daily Beast, and more. Hossain is also the host of the Spilling Chai podcast and author of "The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women."

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.