CNN's Amanpour: Disagree With Way Trump Town Hall Handled

CNN veteran journalist Christian Amanpour during an address to Columbia Journalism School students on Wednesday voiced her disagreement with the network's decision to host former President Donald Trump for a town hall forum last week, saying she would have "dropped the mic" when he called anchor Kaitlan Collins a "nasty person."

She also said she had a "very robust exchange of views" about the matter with CNN CEO Chris Licht.

"My management believes they did the right thing, a service to the American people," she said while accepting the prestigious Columbia Journalism Award and serving as the school's 2023 commencement speaker. "Some reports have written about important new thoughts and things that we learned from Trump's very mouth that night … . Time could very well prove that Trump's electroshock therapy to the world jolts the undecided into greater awareness.

"The fact the American people voted three times against Trump and Trumpism — 2018, 2020, 2022 — also speaks volumes. We've done our duty, we've told the story, we've put that in everybody's awareness, and people have had the opportunity to make their choices, and they have done.

"I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format," she continued. "We know Trump and his tendencies. Everyone does.