Politics
TV news ratings surged with Trump felony conviction coverage. Here's how it was covered
A TV audience of more than 15 million watched Thursday as former President Donald Trump became a convicted felon.
Starting around 1:45 p.m. Pacific, viewing surged for cable news and broadcast networks as they delivered a New York jury’s verdict to convict Trump on 34 felony counts against him in the New York hush money case. Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records related to a payment made to silence adult film actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
Nielsen data showed that the plurality of viewers were tuned into Fox News, which is regularly the most-watched network in the hour, thanks to its popular panel show “The Five.” Fox News stayed with anchor Shannon Bream until about 2:43 p.m. before “The Five” co-hosts weighed in with harsh criticism of the verdict from the network’s pro-Trump commentators.
Fox News averaged 4.7 million viewers from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific, when it typically pulls in around 3 million. The verdict started rolling in at 2:06 p.m.
MSNBC, which had a large on-screen ticker that tallied the number of guilty verdicts as they came in, scored 3.7 million viewers in the hour, nearly doubling its typical turn out for anchor Nicolle Wallace’s program. CNN also saw its audience spike, with 2.6 million viewers
Preliminary ratings from Nielsen show that ABC had the most viewers among the broadcast networks with 3.4 million viewers for a special report that aired at 1:48 p.m. Pacific. A CBS News special report scored 2.5 million viewers. Data for NBC were not available.
Overall, the total number of people watching on TV will not be on par with such major news events as Biden’s State of the Union address, which drew 32 million viewers in March.
Like many Trump-related events, there is no precedent for viewing of a courtroom verdict on crimes committed by a former president. A verdict was not expected Thursday, and it arrived when most people were still at work or commuting home. Many news consumers were more likely to have streamed video of the outcome on their phones.
In prime time on the East Coast, from 5 to 8 p.m. Pacific, MSNBC’s analysis led by Rachel Maddow won the night with 3.4 million viewers, scoring a rare win over Fox News, which was second with 3 million. CNN averaged 1.25 million viewers. The progressive leaning MSNBC tends to pull in more viewers during times when the news is bad for Trump.
MSNBC was strongest at 8 p.m. Eastern when it featured former Trump attorney Michael Cohen as a guest. Cohen’s testimony was critical to the prosecution’s case against Trump.
The tone of the coverage broke down according to the tribal leanings of the cable news audience. Conservative Fox News hosts and guests expressed disgust with the verdict, calling it a form of election interference aimed at helping President Biden, who will face off again against Trump in the 2024 presidential contest in November.
“I guess we all need to shop at Banana Republic from now on, because that’s what it feels like, a Banana Republic,” said Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
The court’s work earned praise from the set at MSNBC.
“It’s exactly what America needs right now,” Cohen said in reaction to the verdict. “We need for accountability to be had by all those that break the law. Because, as we like to continuously state, no one is above the law, and today’s verdict demonstrates that.”
Maddow expressed concern over the apparent divide along partisan lines.
“The Republicans, Trump’s enablers, would have celebrated an acquittal and they’re only condemning a conviction because they don’t like the result,” Maddow said. “I think what is important is for us not to look away from what is broken. And what is broken is that one of the two parties does not respect the rule of law…. And that is a flashing red light for our country.”
CNN tried to get both sides, booking Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche for a sit-down with anchor Kaitlan Collins. But based on the network’s distant third place finish behind Fox News and MSNBC, the cable audience continues to gravitate to the opinion hosts who represent their own viewpoints.
Such stories can be tricky to navigate for Fox News anchors who don’t dabble in opinion. On Wednesday, Bream took fire from Trump in a post criticizing her for correcting a guest, Trump attorney Alina Habba, who said the Biden administration is behind the legal cases against his predecessor. (The hush money trial was prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office).
Unbridled, Bream succinctly described the verdict in a political context. “The Biden-Harris campaign is free now to call President Trump a convicted felon,” Bream said.
TV news organizations will now be faced with the challenge of how much of a platform to provide candidate Trump, as he moves out of the courtroom and onto the campaign trail.
Trump announced Friday that he was holding a press conference in the atrium of Trump Tower in Manhattan. NBC was the only broadcast network to cut into regular programming to cover the event.
But Trump took no questions during the appearance, in which he aired a litany of grievances and attacks on President Biden, including an accusation that the Democratic administration “wants to take away your cars.”
NBC pulled away from the remarks, as did CNN and MSNBC, noting the falsehoods coming from Trump. Fox News ran the speech in full.
Trump is slated to give his first post-verdict interview to Fox News, airing on the Sunday edition of “Fox & Friends.”
President Biden is ending his tenure in the White House on a “sad” note after “lying to the nation” and taking credit for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas during his farewell address on Wednesday evening, a Trump transition official said.
“Joe Biden is going out sad. Lying to the nation trying to take credit for a deal that all parties credit President Trump for making happen. Biden has had well over a year to secure the release of these hostages and peace. He failed. Trump succeeded,” a Trump transition official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday evening.
War has raged in the Middle East since October of 2023, with Israel and Hamas coming to a ceasefire agreement on Wednesday that also ensured the release of hostages.
Biden delivered his final address to the nation on Wednesday evening, where he took a victory lap for the cease fire in his opening remarks.
BIDEN TAKES SOLE CREDIT FOR ISRAEL-HAMAS DEAL, WARNS OF ‘OLIGARCHY’ THREATENING DEMOCRACY IN FAREWELL SPEECH
Left: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the latest developments in Syria from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Dec. 8, 2024 in Washington, D.C.; Right: President-Elect Donald Trump reacts during his meeting with Prince William, Prince of Wales at the Embassy of the United Kingdom’s Residence on December 7, 2024 in Paris, France. (Left: Pete Marovich/Getty Images; Right: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
“My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office. Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration – by my administration – a cease-fire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas. The elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year,” Biden said.
President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House as he gives his farewell address Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans,” he continued.
PRESIDENT BIDEN RELEASES FAREWELL LETTER, SAYS IT’S BEEN ‘PRIVILEGE OF MY LIFE TO SERVE THIS NATION’
Former US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) as they pose for a photo during their meeting at Mar-a-Lago estate, in Palm Beach, Florida, United States on July 26, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Credit for reaching the agreement, however, was bolstered by the incoming Trump administration, according to sources who told Fox Digital that a recent meeting between Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly played a pivotal role in the deal.
FOX NEWS GETS AN INSIDE LOOK AT IDF’S WAR AGAINST HAMAS
Netanyahu also thanked Trump on Wednesday for “his assistance in advancing the release of the hostages.”
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with US President-elect Donald Trump and thanked him for his assistance in advancing the release of the hostages and for helping Israel bring an end to the suffering of dozens of hostages and their families,” the official Prime Minister of Israel X account posted.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, October 1, 2024. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
“The Prime Minister made it clear that he is committed to returning all of the hostages however he can, and commended the US President-elect for his remarks that the US would work with Israel to ensure that Gaza will never be a haven for terrorism.”
The X account added later: “Prime Minister Netanyahu then spoke with US President Joe Biden and thanked him as well for his assistance in advancing the hostages deal.”
ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE, HOSTAGE RELEASE DEAL REACHED: ‘AMERICANS WILL BE PART OF THAT’
When asked who the history books would remember for championing the ceasefire deal earlier Wednesday, Biden balked at the suggestion Trump and his team spearheaded the effort.
“Who in the history books gets credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked Biden at Wednesday afternoon’s White House news conference.
“Is that a joke?” the president responded.
“Oh. Thank you,” Biden responded when Heinrich said it was not a joke, and then walked away.
WASHINGTON — Once a bitter critic of President-elect Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida headed into his first Senate hearing Wednesday as nominee for secretary of State.
Rubio, with extensive experience on Capitol Hill and in foreign policy circles, appears to be the least controversial in Trump’s list of Cabinet picks, many of whom lack the credentials or background usually associated with their nominated jobs.
A foreign policy hawk — especially on China — Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, seemed likely to win easy bipartisan approval. On Wednesday, he faced the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on which he has served for 14 years.
If confirmed as expected, Rubio will be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat.
In the past, Rubio largely hewed to long-standing Republican views on a multi-lateral approach to the world, embracing allies and united action. On Wednesday, he echoed Trump’s “America first” philosophy.
His State Department, Rubio testified, will be guided by a singular objective “to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.”
“Placing our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio said. “The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us.”
China, he said, is the “most potent” enemy the United States has ever faced, its “near peer” on many fronts, including technology, economy and diplomatic muscle.
“We’ve allowed them to get away with things …. and now we are dealing with the ramifications of that,” he said, advocating the U.S. must fortify its own industrial and supply chain capabilities to prevent “total dependence … from our security to our health” on the communist-led nation.
Rubio, who recently voted against an aid package for Ukraine, echoed Trump in saying Kyiv’s war with Russia had to come to an end. “There will have to be concessions made” by both Russia and Ukraine, he said. Many observers worry that Trump’s affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin will lead to him demanding more sacrifice from Ukraine in any peace negotiation.
The hearing was interrupted by protesters; Rubio quipped that at least he gets bilingual demonstrators.
But overall, the mood among the senators was friendly and lacked the confrontations of the previous day’s hearing of Fox TV commentator Pete Hegseth, whom Trump has nominated to be secretary of Defense. Senators questioned Hegseth about his experience, drinking, position on women in combat roles and allegations of sexual assault, which he has denied.
When President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to pressure him on a cease-fire deal in Gaza, there was someone on the speakerphone: Brett H. McGurk, President Biden’s longtime Mideast negotiator.
It was a vivid example of cooperation between two men representing bitter political rivals whose relationship has been best described as poisonous. Rarely if ever have teams of current and new presidents of different parties worked together at such a high-stakes moment, with the fate of American lives and the future of a devastating war hanging in the balance.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden publicly claimed credit for the breakthrough.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site even before the deal was formally announced in the Middle East.
At the White House, Mr. Biden told reporters that his administration had worked tirelessly for months to convince the two sides to halt the fighting. He called it “one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever experienced” and gave credit to “an extraordinary team of American diplomats who have worked nonstop for months to get this done.”
As he left the room, a reporter asked Mr. Biden, “Who gets credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Mr. Biden stopped, turned around and smiled.
“Is that a joke?” he asked.
But despite the tension between the current president and the next one, their representatives in the Middle East described a cooperative working relationship in the weeks since Election Day.
“Brett is in the lead,” Mr. Witkoff said last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Florida, describing the working relationship. That description was accurate by all accounts, even if it did not match what Mr. Trump had said moments before in one of several statements describing his negotiators as critical players.
In fact, Mr. Trump’s threat that “all hell” would break loose if no deal was reached before his inauguration on Monday might have helped motivate Hamas’s leadership to make final decisions. But people familiar with the negotiations said the announcement on Wednesday of a deal to temporarily end hostilities in Gaza was the result of months of work by Mr. McGurk in the Middle East, capped off by several weeks of carefully coordinated efforts by Mr. Witkoff.
Mr. Witkoff, 67, a blunt real estate investor from the Bronx, has largely planted himself in Qatar for the negotiations, knowing that whatever Mr. McGurk negotiated, he would have to execute. In fact, the 33 hostages who will be released under the cease-fire deal may not see freedom until Inauguration Day or after. The cease-fire would expire six weeks later, unless Phase 2 of the agreement kicks in.
By design, the goal was to send a unified message that the fighting must end and the hostages held by Hamas must be released. One person familiar with the negotiations, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said Mr. McGurk was more involved in hammering out details of the agreement, while Mr. Witkoff’s role was to make clear that Mr. Trump wanted a deal by the time he is inaugurated.
The president-elect has also been setting some early parameters in his dealings with Mr. Netanyahu — who, for all his support of Mr. Trump in the election, was perceived by the Trump camp as dragging his feet on a deal. Mr. Witkoff flew to to Israel from Doha on Saturday — despite the Sabbath — to underscore the message that Mr. Netanyahu had to get on board.
Mr. Witkoff’s work, including the meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, helped Mr. McGurk and the Biden administration to put pressure on both sides during the negotiation, according to the person familiar with the talks.
It was not at all clear that such an arrangement would work in the days immediately after Mr. Trump won a second term.
He and Mr. Biden have barely talked in recent weeks, their already acrimonious relationship weighed down by the Trump team’s determination to clean out the White House career staff and the Biden team issuing last-minute orders to box in the new administration.
In his remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Biden acknowledged some level of cooperation and respect between their aides.
“This deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “In these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team.”
But he did not give any more credit to Mr. Trump for helping the effort. For his part, the president-elect said he was “thrilled” that the American hostages would be released, but he did not mention Mr. Biden or the work of the current administration.
“We have achieved so much without even being in the White House,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!”
Both leaders left it to staff members to describe the way they had worked together on the Gaza negotiations.
A person familiar with that effort said a close partnership between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff was part of an “incredibly effective” process by which the Biden administration finalized a deal that the Trump administration would have to oversee.
That cooperation began soon after Mr. Trump won the election and named Mr. Witkoff to be his envoy to the region. Biden administration officials have said they believe the momentum for a deal began before that, when Mr. Biden helped broker a separate agreement to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. That isolated Hamas and helped persuade the group that a cease-fire was in its interests, according to Biden officials.
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