‘CNN Did Trump a MASSIVE Favor’: Ben Shapiro Argues ‘Biased Moderator’ Helped Trump, Claims CNN Wants to Renominate Him

Daily Wire founder and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro offered his take Thursday morning on the headline-grabbing CNN town hall with former President Donald Trump the night before.

The Kaitlan Collins-hosted event received a quick and fierce backlash among pundits and observers, with CNN’s own media reporter Oliver Darcy writing, “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.”

Shapiro, who has both been a critic and supporter of Trump from the right, also pulled no punches in criticizing ratings-beleaguered CNN.

“CNN did Trump a MASSIVE favor last night and everybody knows it. Here’s why,” Shapiro began in a lengthy Twitter post.

“This townhall was billed as a Republican primary townhall, which means that presumably, Trump should have been asked about issues Republican voters care about. Like, say, Fauci and covid; criminal justice reform and Alice Johnson and crime; the border wall and illegal immigration. Etc,” he continued, adding:

Now let me present a partial list of the issues Republican voters DON’T care about:

E. Jean Carroll
January 6
Georgia election questions
National Archives documents
Alvin Bragg’s allegations

These are all Democrats’ top issues.

Collins asked zero of the questions Republicans cared about and all the ones Democrats cared about.

“So, in other words, this was billed as a GOP primary night, and it was just Kaitlin Collins asking questions Democrats have about Trump,” Shapiro concluded, criticizing CNN for never pushing Trump on his conservative credentials.

“Republican voters sensed this. So when Trump took out the kitchen sink and began hammering Collins into the wall with it, they cheered. Republicans will — ALWAYS AND CORRECTLY — cheer biased moderators being steamrolled by Republican candidates, no matter what those candidates actually say,” Shapiro added.

During the town hall, which at moments appeared more like a debate between Collins and Trump, Trump called Collins a “nasty person” – eliciting a roar of approval from the GOP-voting audience.

Shapiro concluded by breaking down the net gains he believes Trump made during the night with the electorate. “Trump wins more favor with Republican voters; Democrats remain offput; independents continue to wonder why we’re relitigating 2020.”

“Ridiculous failure by CNN on all fronts — unless, of course, their goal is to renominate Trump for the ratings and because they think he’s most beatable (NOTE: this, by the way, is precisely their goal),” Shapiro concluded.

CNN defended both the town hall and Collins in a statement, saying, “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.”

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com