MSNBC president open to Trump town hall, angering liberals

close

Video

MSNBC president open to a Trump town hall with 'parameters' to 'control the environment'

MSNBC President Rashida Jones appeared open to hosting a town hall with Donald Trump on the network when asked about the possibility during an interview with Axios' Sara Fischer. 

MSNBC President Rashida Jones appeared open to hosting Donald Trump on air in a town hall format, telling Axios' Sara Fischer that it would be a "conversation" if he requested to come on the network. 

"If Trump came to you specifically and says, ‘I want to be on your air to do it,’ would you say yes?" Axios reporter Sara Fischer asked Jones. 

"Would I say yes? It would be a conversation. I think you’d have to put parameters about how to control the environment," Jones said.

She also said MSNBC was having conversations with all of the candidates "about how to bring their point of view to the audience."

MSNBC president Rashida Jones sits down with Axios' Sara Fischer (Screenshot/Axios)

OCASIO-CORTEZ FUMES AT CNN FOR TRUMP TOWN HALL: ‘SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES’

"There are lots of ways to do that, whether it’s a live interview, whether it’s a tape interview, or whether it’s a town hall, whether it’s a debate. We still have 505 days left until Election Day," Jones said. "I don’t know that a town hall tomorrow is something that our audience is looking for, or any audience, but as you look at the next 505 days, I think you’ll see a lot of that across the portfolio."

Some took issue with the MSNBC president's statement in the aftermath of CNN's Trump town hall, which was widely criticized by CNN employees and Democrats. 

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann said the network needed a "new president" after leaving the door open for a Trump town hall. 

In another tweet, he wrote, "Once again you have my most sincere apologies for what @msnbc has become." 

Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC, speaks at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 2, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

CNN BLASTED BY ITS OWN CONTRIBUTOR FOR TRUMP TOWN HALL: ‘GUY WHO TRIED TO GET ME KILLED’

Fox News Digital has reached out to MSNBC for comment. 

Major voices at CNN criticized the network for hosting a Trump town hall, including media reporter Oliver Darcy. 

"It's hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN," Oliver Darcy wrote in CNN’s "Reliable Sources" newsletter. 

"CNN aired it all. On and on it went. It felt like 2016 all over again," Darcy complained. "Collins was put in an uncomfortable position, given the town hall was conducted in front of a Republican audience that applauded Trump, giving a sense of unintended endorsement to his shameful antics."

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in at the Waco Regional Airport in March 2023. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

CNN's Christiane Amanpour also called out now former boss Chris Licht over the Trump town hall during a speech at Columbia's Journalism School. Licht stepped down in early June in the aftermath of the town hall. 

"My management believes they did the right thing, a service to the American people. 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," Amanpour said. "For me, of course, the fact that the American people voted three times against Trump and Trumpism- 2018, 2020, 2022- also speaks volumes. We've done our duty. We have told the story. We have put that in everybody's awareness and people have had the opportunity to make their choices and they have done." 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

She continued, "I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format."

Fox News' Joesph Wulfsohn, Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.