CNN’s Zucker: Trump ‘secretly watching CNN’ all day and night

by Emily Birnbaum - 05/23/18 12:22 AM ET

CNN President Jeff Zucker on Tuesday night said President Trump is “secretly watching CNN all day and all night.”

“It’s pretty clear from his comments and tweets that he knows fully well what CNN is doing,” Zucker said, though he couldn’t think of any specific examples off the top of his head.

Zucker said this to ITK before a screening of CNN’s new documentary miniseries “1968” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The screening was followed by a panel moderated by CNN’s Don Lemon.

Though the panelists did not directly mention the Trump administration, several of them noted the parallels between 1968 and the current, tumultuous moment in U.S. history.

Lemon told ITK that he sees similarities between the student protests of 1968 and those of today.

“People were probably a little bit more open to hearing from people they didn’t agree with [in 1968],” Lemon said. “But I think even then and now, people don’t want to hear hate. They don’t want to have to listen to hate, racism, bigotry. You have a right to shut it down.”

The panelists included Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch, Boston Globe associate editor and columnist Renée Graham and Ohio State University associate professor of history Hasan Jeffries.

“There’s this historic struggle between those who want to maintain the status quo, preserve things as they are, and those who are contesting the status quo, who want to change things, move things in a different direction,” Jeffries said, addressing the parallels between 1968 and 2018.

The event attracted about 70 people, with a strong showing from CNN. Zucker gave the opening remarks and correspondents Kaitlan Collins, Nia Malika-Henderson, Abby Phillip, Michelle Kosinski and Jessica Schneider were all in attendance. Other attendees included scholars of black history and filmmakers.

“1968” debuts Sunday.

Tags Donald Trump