CNN’s Smerconish blasts own network, others for not airing Trump’s election speech

Media CNN’s Smerconish blasts own network, others for not airing Trump’s election speech Comments: by Finya Swai - 07/18/26 3:10 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Finya Swai - 07/18/26 3:10 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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CNN host Michael Smerconish said major television networks acted with “condescension” by not airing President Trump’s primetime speech on election fraud on their channels, saying viewers should be trusted to evaluate the president’s remarks for themselves.

Several of the nation’s biggest networks, including CNN, NBC and ABC, refused to broadcast Trump’s Thursday night address live, while others such as CBS and Fox aired the live speech with disclaimers.

During his speech, Trump made allegations of foreign interference in U.S. elections, claiming his administration had uncovered evidence that was later released to the public on a new White House website.

The unclassified documents uploaded to the page, however, did not appear to provide sufficient evidence to support his claims of foreign interference or voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Smerconish said that if Trump had delivered the same speech during his own SiriusXM radio program, he would have interrupted his regular programming to air it.

“But my standard practice is to take the remarks live. And I think it’s an easy call,” Smerconish said. He argued that airing the speech did not amount to endorsing it, saying journalists can still provide analysis and criticism afterward.

“Had I taken this speech primarily on alleged election interference, I would not have been endorsing the content,” he said. “It would have been incumbent on me to offer fair comment and criticism when it ended.”

He added that refusing to air the speech in its entirety and then later criticizing it is unfair to both the president and the network’s viewers.

“I think consistency matters. If it’s newsworthy enough to rebut, it’s newsworthy enough to air it first,” he said. “Rebuttal alone treats the audience as lacking any filter. And I trust my audience to know better.”

He noted that Trump has been subjected to extensive fact-checking throughout his entire political career, but was nonetheless elected president twice.

“In the most fact checked media environment in history. And the voters, they’ve heard it all; the words and the rebuttals and the fact checking,” he said. “And they elected him twice, denying him 22 minutes in year ten? It’s not prevention. It’s condescension.”

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