During last week’s town hall on CNN, former president Donald Trump got fired up during the commercial break by reading tweets from Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.).
Trump adviser Jason Miller showed the former president tweets of Democrats getting upset at his good performance and CNN’s failure to shut him down, Axios reported. Trump came out of the commercial break more aggressive in his sparring with moderator Kaitlan Collins.
Trump's team reportedly told him to keep doing what he was doing. One of the tweets they showed him was one from Ocasio-Cortez, 23 minutes into the town hall, furious at CNN for hosting the former president.
"CNN should be ashamed of themselves," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "They have lost total control of this 'town hall' to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim."
He also saw a tweet from former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang that said the event was "a clear win for Trump" in the GOP field "and probably overall."
The Wednesday town hall drew 3.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data. "That figure represents more than three times the number of viewers CNN has earned during the 8 p.m. hour in recent weeks," the Hill reported.
Yang and Ocasio-Cortez were far from alone in their criticism of CNN. Several prominent Democrats and media personalities, including several at the network itself, tore into CNN for allowing Trump to speak.