Town halls

Monday

Dave Seminara

It’s not too late for the press to start doing their jobs

One night last week I got a robocall asking me to participate in a candidate town hall. “If you’d like to ask Ed Montanari a question, press star three,” a female voice instructed me as I joined the call to satisfy my curiosity. Though I had previously not given any thought to the Florida District 60 state House race, I spent the next hour listening with interest as Mr. Montanari, a Republican challenger, fielded questions from voters. At one point, I pressed one to ask a question. I told the screener my question was about crime, and fifteen minutes later I was connected to the candidate to ask my question. Isn’t this how democracy is supposed to work?

Thursday

Cockburn

CNN reels internally from Trump town hall hangover

CNN’s town hall with 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump last night was such a doozy that the network’s own senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy, is copping to a widespread hangover this morning. It isn’t hard to find people disgusted by CNN’s choice to host Trump; Twitter is ablaze with users proclaiming that CNN has “a lot of egg on its face” (Justin Baragona) and “should be ashamed of itself” (AOC). Mediaite’s editor-in-chief, Aidan McLaughlin cited a CNN journalist who told him, “That was sickening. Shame on us.” And in his Reliable Sources newsletter this morning, Darcy reported, “CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event.

kaitlan collins cnn