Donald Trump claims CNN employees are rioting and wanting his former staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin fired because “they can’t stand the radical left heat” after appearing to praise the network’s decision to impeach the former president in a controversial to have city hall.
Griffin previously served in the Trump administration as director of strategic communications and has since become one of the Republican frontrunner’s harshest critics.
The former White House staffer is also one of the co-hosts of the liberal talk show The View on ABC.
Griffin spoke out in defense of CNN’s controversial City Hall, which was hosted by Kaitlin Collins — but only because it “lost votes” for Trump and exposed him, in her view, as “radioactive to independents and moderates.”
‘Wow! Rumor has it they are rebelling against the ‘View’ and CNN, and want Farrah OUT! There’s a lot more to come,” Trump posted on his TruthSocial platform on Saturday night.
Donald Trump has lashed out at his former White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin, calling her a “loser” and a “backbencher” in a post on his Truth Social network
Griffin, Trump’s former director of strategic communications, now co-host of ABC’s The View and political commentator for CNN, has expressed contempt for her former boss
Trump then referred back to an earlier interview Griffin did while still in the Oval Office, in which she praised the 76-year-old.
He used that footage to call her a “fake” in light of her more recent criticism, adding that there was “a lot more to come.”
Trump went on to say he believes management would succumb to their staff and fire Griffin because “they can’t handle the left heat.”
He compared her situation to that of CNN CEO Chris Licht, who has become the victim of the criticism of the town hall.
“Just like CNN wants to fire the ‘boss’ because of the beautiful city hall they just put up. One of their biggest viewing nights in years, and they’re begging for mercy. CNN, let’s do another one?” Trump wrote.
Echoing Trump’s town hall, Griffin had said it was good for CNN to have him as a guest, but it would negatively affect the former Apprentice host’s prospects in 2024.
“America got to see who he is last night: a ranting, raging lunatic, who sided with Vladimir Putin,” Griffin said of her former boss.
Trump fired back, sharing a video of Griffin effusively praising him as she worked at the White House, claiming without evidence that executives at CNN and The View were under pressure from “radical left” staffers to fire Griffin.
Backbencher in the Trump administration, Alyssa Farah, like so many other sleazebags, only had glowing reviews of the Trump administration until long after she left. Then a loser, and now a loser!” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
“She tried to cut her words, but we ALL have them. I don’t see how she can keep it up because this ‘stuff’ shows what a fake she is,” Trump added, apparently referring to the video he previously shared of Griffin praising him.
“One of their biggest viewing nights in years, and they’re begging for mercy. CNN, let’s do another one?’ concluded Trump.
At CNN, the internal May 10 town hall controversy has spilled over to the public, with some of the network’s top personalities loudly criticizing the decision to interview Trump in front of an audience of his cheering fans.
According to her colleagues, who are now furious with bosses, moderator Kaitlan Collins was given ‘an impossible task’
In an internal conversation with CNN employees last week, Licht noted that people in the town hall audience represented much of America.
“The mistake the media has made in the past is that they ignore that people exist,” he said. “Just like you can’t get around the fact that President Trump exists.”
Earlier this week, veteran correspondent Christiane Amanpour became the most prominent CNN journalist to publicly criticize her network over the town hall.
Amanpour told a group of graduating students at Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism on Wednesday that she “would have dropped the mic at ‘annoying person,’ a reference to when Trump uttered that insult to moderator Kaitlan Collins.
She criticized CNN for hosting Trump at the New Hampshire live event where the 2024 presidential candidate repeated lies about the last election to a mostly adoring audience.
Licht has defended the town hall as newsworthy and important, and Amanpour said she had a “robust discussion” with him about it.
Everyone knows that Trump tries to take the stage and dominate at such events, said Amanpour, the chief international correspondent who has worked at CNN for 40 years.
“No matter how much flak the moderator tries to aim at the incoming one, it won’t work,” she said.
During the infamous appearance, Trump repeated an insult he often used on the 2016 campaign trail when he called Collins, the network’s new 9PM anchor, “annoying.”
In a back-and-forth conversation about the classified documents in Mar-a-Lago, Trump and Collins talked at once, with Trump stating at one point, “You’re so wrong. You don’t know the subject.’
“I know the subject,” she replied.
The special aired the day after Trump was ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages.
Trump was questioned aggressively by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins
The jury rejected her claim of rape and instead found Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual assault, which Trump denied, saying he had never encountered Carroll in a 1996 department store and did not know her.
When asked about the verdict by Collins, Trump said his polls were going up and repeated his statements that he didn’t know Carroll, though at least one photo of them together has surfaced.
‘I do not know her. I never met her. I had no idea who she is,” he said.
Trump opened up with a mocking voice over Carroll’s claims, drawing laughter and applause from the live audience.
Collins tried to interrupt, but Trump continued, calling it “a bogus story” and referring to Carroll as “a crazy job.”
She asked Trump about his comments in the infamous “Access Hollywood” video in which he bragged about grabbing women’s genitals without asking permission.
The video was played during the trial and Collins asked him on Wednesday if he stood by his comments.
People protest outside a building on the Saint Anselm College campus hosting a CNN television meeting at City Hall featuring former President Donald Trump
Trump supporters outside the hall where the town hall will take place
Trump defended his comments, saying he had said women let him grab their genitals without consent because he was a star. “I can’t reverse that because it turns out to be true,” he said.
He repeated his lies about the 2020 presidential election and his unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
Trump struck a more muted tone than he usually uses on stage to his cheering supporters, calling it a “rigged election” and a “disgrace” before Collins cut him off, corrected his statements and asked him to publicly acknowledge his loss to Biden .
Trump did not and immediately returned to his false claims. As Collins continued to try to fact-check Trump, he interrupted again, calling for fair elections, then turned to other topics, such as immigration.
He backtracked on his claims at other points at City Hall, scattering the lie in replies on unrelated topics and prompting Collins to interrupt and correct him.
Donald Trump and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the front of City Hall
Trump had until then largely avoided answering tough questions about the lies he spread about his 2020 election loss that led to the deadly riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The former president boasted about the size of the crowd he spoke to before some began marching toward the Capitol, saying those in attendance believed the election had been “rigged.”
“They were proud there. They were there with love in their hearts. That was incredible and it was a beautiful day,” Trump said.
Collins pressed Trump for why he had not asked his supporters to leave the Capitol or send aid to disperse the protesters, and he deflected, trying to blame then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
At one point, he pulled out hard copies of his Twitter posts that day in which, hours after the attack on the Capitol began, he finally asked his supporters to leave the Capitol.
He said that if elected president again, he would be inclined to pardon many of those convicted of their role in the January 6 attack. More than 1,000 people have been charged and more than 600 have been convicted so far.