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Licht’s Dispassion Punch

Inside CNN, the reverberations from Wednesday’s town hall are still being profoundly felt, further testing the long-strained relationship between the network’s anchors and journalists on one side and their newly dispassionate boss on the other. As one insider put it: “It’s Chris Licht’s fucking CNN now.”

CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht had advised Collins not to be combative with Trump, sources familiar said.
CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht had advised Collins not to be combative with Trump, sources familiar said. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Semafor
Dylan Byers
May 12, 2023

Kaitlan Collins, the ascendant CNN prime-time star and the next great down-the-middle hope of Chris Licht’s attempt to rebrand his flailing news network, opened the 9 p.m. hour on Thursday with a true-enough declaration: the live town hall she had moderated with former president Donald Trump some 24 hours earlier was “a major inflection point in the Republican party’s search for its nominee and potentially the starting line for America’s next presidential race.” At the very least, the 70-minute event thrust Trump back to the forefront of the national conversation, reminded everyone that the G.O.P. frontrunner has become more brazen than ever in his disregard for truth and democratic norms, and suggested that, despite his demonstrable malfeasance, his uniquely self-assured anti-establishment swagger remains a winning sell among the Republican base.