James Carville Blasts CNN, ABC, NBC for Skipping Trump’s Thursday Night Speech

Carville targets TV networks

James Carville lambasted CNN during a Friday appearance on “The Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer for deciding not to air President Donald Trump’s Thursday night speech live, saying it would have shown viewers just how “crazy” Trump actually is. Carville told Blitzer, “I would advise them to attack CNN, attack ABC, attack NBC, attack MS NOW, because they didn’t air the speech,” and argued, “I think the president of the United States acting loonier than a tune is newsworthy.”

Blitzer pressed Carville on whether he thought CNN and other networks that did not run the speech in prime time should have given Trump more publicity, and Carville replied, “I’m absolutely saying it.” Carville said the networks’ choice to show only “a lot of the newsy excerpts” later on left room for viewers to believe clips were unfairly edited, calling the networks’ decision “the mistake” and saying “there’s nothing like people sitting there watching the whole thing to tell them what’s really going on.”

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Mullin calls it shameful

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin blasted ABC and NBC on Friday for declining to air President Donald Trump's election-security address on their broadcast networks Thursday night, accusing the outlets of withholding information from Americans as the midterms approach.

Mullin asked, “Why? What are they trying to cover up? Why wouldn’t they want to inform the American people?” and said, “Two major networks didn't want to cover it? I think the question really should say why.”

Trump, meanwhile, directly criticized ABC and NBC over their decisions not to broadcast the speech on television, saying, “They don't like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is, and they don't want to reveal it.”

Trump also argued that the networks should face regulatory consequences, saying, “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses,” while the Federal Communications Commission licenses individual broadcast stations, not national networks.

Reporting for this sectionFox News

Coverage dispute and next steps

CNN, NBC News and ABC News announced in the hours ahead of Thursday’s primetime speech that they would not carry it in full on their regular channels but rather make it available for viewers to watch on streaming platforms, with live editorial coverage to follow. A CNN spokesperson said in a statement that Trump’s remarks would be covered as a “news event” with analysis and commentary from elections and intelligence experts, and the channel also offered a live feed on its digital platforms.

Carville continued to argue that partial clips could undermine credibility because some viewers could think they were edited, saying, “I think the mistake was made by the networks not to show it in its entirety, so people could see him in full.” Trump’s speech, as described in the coverage, included allegations of Chinese interference in U.S. elections, vulnerabilities in the system, and his widely unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, and he called for the networks to have their broadcast licenses pulled by the Federal Communications Commission.

Reporting for this sectionThe Hill