Media

CNN’S Don Lemon: Trump needs media more than we need him

by Joe Concha - 12/27/16 12:28 PM ET

CNN anchor Don Lemon says if it were up to him, his network wouldn’t give airtime to President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets.

{mosads}“He still needs us more than we need him,” Lemon said of Trump’s strategy with the media.

“Listen, I’m not a news executive. But if I were, I would say I would not cover his tweets.”

Lemon said doing so would lead Trump to hold a formal press conference, because “he hates being ignored.”

Trump, who has not held a press conference since July, has used Twitter since his election to announce Cabinet nominations, make foreign policy pronouncements and attack Democrats and the media.

The world was gloomy before I won – there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016

Washington Examiner senior correspondent David Drucker told hosts Lemon and Poppy Harlow on “New Day” that he believed Trump was hiding from tough questions by only speaking with those “he feels very comfortable with.”

“If you’ve watched the evolution, he’s gone from doing all of the mainstream media programs on Sundays — granted in his bathroom on the telephone, but he was on every week — to generally talking to right-of-center media only.”

Trucker added that Trump “occasionally branches out” but mostly sticks to interviewers he’s comfortable with.

Since being elected, Trump has been interviewed by CBS’s “60 Minutes,” the New York Times and “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace.

“Voters generally don’t trust us and therefore they will put up with him not talking to us,” Drucker said.

Tags Donald Trump