I’m not going to pick on Collins because she had a tough job — perhaps an impossible one — and a lot of other people are going to rip her today. But CNN wildly underestimated the challenge that seemingly everyone else could see coming. This newsletter, just yesterday: “We all know how much Trump loves being challenged and corrected, so tonight’s town hall could turn into something akin to his first debate with Biden in 2020 — lots of crosstalk, interruptions, and maybe even shouting or heated exchanges.”

With that said, I’m not sure what the value was in asking Trump whether he would commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election. He didn’t accept the result of the 2020 election! Last night, he still insisted he had truly won that election and that the presidency had been stolen! Trump accepts election results when he wins, and he rejects them when he loses. Why would anyone expect him to change? And if we know he’s not going to change, what’s the point of asking him that question?

Afterwards, on-air and online, CNN fact-checked Trump . . . for a much smaller audience.

The post-town-hall panel on CNN looked miserable. Our old friend Isaac Schorr scoffed, “Furrow your brow all you want, Mr. Serious Anchor — the same guy who signs your checks just made a multimillion-dollar contribution to Trump 2024 MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

[Eh … I think Jim’s right on the deets but misses the big picture. CNN offered Trump that platform because they NEED him on their airwaves. Trump was their biggest profitmaker and his relative absence has drastically slashed their ratings and revenues. CNN and the rest of the media desperately want and need Trump to win the nomination in order to keep covering him and get those big ratings again. I don’t think that “multi-million-dollar contribution to Trump 2024” was at all an unintended consequence. It’s a deliberate strategy — and it worked. — Ed]