What Network Producers, Executives, and Republican Presidential Candidates Can Learn from the CNN Town Hall

Key Highlights :

1. Newt Gingrich's response to a tough question about his ex-wife's claim that he had once sought an open marriage was dudgeonful. This made him popular with Republican voters.

2. Trump's victory in the South Carolina primary in 2012 was a result of his willingness to attack the media. He was able to steamroll Kaitlan Collins, a CNN reporter, and her attempts at shaming him.

3. Republican politicians should try to think like Trump's voters and come up with questions that will be illuminating to them.

     The CNN Town Hall with Donald Trump this week was an extended version of the John King-Newt Gingrich confrontation from the 2012 South Carolina Republican primary, and it provided an important insight into the Republican voter mindset. It revealed that Republican voters are willing to forgive a multitude of sins, or else disbelieve in those sins’ existence, for a candidate who’s eagerly, even zestfully at war with the establishment media. This dynamic explains the futility of CNN’s town hall with Trump and serves as a lesson to two groups: network producers and executives, and rival Republican presidential candidates.

     For network producers and executives, the lesson is that they have two choices when it comes to dealing with another Trump primary campaign. They can either take the “this-is-an-emergency” path, which entails not normalizing his campaign in any way, or they can take a more traditional approach and prepare for interviews and debates with Trump as normal. If they choose the latter, they need to think a little bit more like Republican voters as opposed to center-left journalists. This means drilling into Trump’s presidential record on conservative terms and asking questions that follow from his stolen-election narrative.

     For rival Republican presidential candidates, the lesson is the importance of demonstrating that they too can engage with the mainstream press and come away a winner. This is the core of Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential strategy so far, which has lifted him to nearly Mike Pence-ian levels of support in part because of his willingness to argue with Chuck Todd or Don Lemon. It’s the opposite of the Ron DeSantis method, which has been to stiff-arm the mainstream media. But it’s not what Republican voters actually seem to want from their national champions. They want the show, the battle, the drama.

     The CNN Town Hall with Donald Trump this week offers an important insight into the Republican voter mindset for both network producers and executives, as well as rival Republican presidential candidates. It has shown that Republican voters are willing to forgive a multitude of sins, or else disbelieve in those sins’ existence, for a candidate who’s eagerly, even zestfully at war with the establishment media. Network producers and executives must choose between not normalizing Trump’s campaign in any way, or taking a more traditional approach and preparing for interviews and debates with Trump as normal. Meanwhile, rival Republican presidential candidates must demonstrate that they too can engage with the mainstream press and come away a winner, as this is what Republican voters seem to want from their national champions.

Continue Reading at Source : nytimes