While Wednesday night’s CNN town hall with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was 92 minutes of what our Jorge Bonilla dubbed “an extended infomercial for socialism in America,” NewsNation held a town hall a few miles away at the Kennedy Center that not only ran longer (at 141 minutes), but featured a robust debate with a parade of guests spanning both age and the political spectrum.
Imagine that. A respectful but rigorous exchange of ideas featuring those left, right, and center about what ails the country and the need to both think critically and engage outside our partisan bubbles and media ecosystems. At its most fundamental core, that is what journalism should be.
Host Chris Cuomo set the tone off the top by thanking “the faithful of NewsNation who know that this is where right and left come to be reasonable” and acknowledging the symbolism of the event being held at the living memorial for a Democrat President (Kennedy) and the particular theatre named after his Republican predecessor (Dwight D. Eisenhower) (click “expand”):
I love that we’re having this moment together. The thank yous for the people at home watching on the CW, for people listening on Sirius XM, to our sponsor Sling for allowing us — Sling! — to have the conversation with limited commercials which is so key so that people can talk and feel free and I am not giving them this sign all the time. And to the faithful of NewsNation who know that this is where right and left come to be reasonable. Thank you each and all for being with us tonight. Second, thank you to Stephen A. and William J. Big names, big game, thank you for lending your names and cachet and your credibility to our efforts at NewsNation. I appreciate you every night, especially tonight. Why? Third, thank you so much for being here. I’ll give you a secret I came out before just to think people for coming — not that I felt I would be alone, but because I think it is so important to be doing what we are doing tonight.
For NewsNation, a startup, to put people like this into the John F. Kennedy center, all the history of the humanities and art and of what makes America great to come here during this time. Kennedy Center, Eisenhower Theater. The metaphors balance, right and left to be reasonable. I will give you an inside pro tip just between us. If I had only wanted to do this with one side tonight, the production would have taken us about 15 minutes. Why? Because once you have one, the other ones want to come in so they don't have that shine taken from them. But when you ask people to sit down together from the two sides when the division is what is being glorified and amplified, it’s hard, so every man and woman you will see her tonight aren't just players, they are brave enough to break the game, which is what we need to do as Americans. Am I right? Good. So, let us start with conversation as a cure. And I wanted to talk to you first because it may be my last chance to speak tonight, so I want to get out of the way. I want to start with each of you beautiful gentlemen. What matters to you most[?]
He then invited his two amigos — Stephen A. Smith and Bill O’Reilly — to share what means the most to each of them about where the country finds itself. Smith focused on the need to “come together as a nation” while O’Reilly emphasized America’s “in flux”:
Their first guest was Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) and it mostly focused on Fetterman remaining in the Democrat Party despite feeling isolated on issues such as the government shutdown and supporting Israel.
Notice how this portion of the larger conversation had zero resemblance to the so-called conversations on CNN NewsNight (aka CNN Thunderome):
Fetterman’s time on-stage wrapped with Cuomo asking Fetterman if public service is still worth it, given what he’s endured since taking office in 2023:
Continuing the theme of balance, Trump border czar Tom Homan was next and, after some questions about the anonymous and dubious claims in MSNBC he accepted bribes, Cuomo, Smith, and an audience member each grilled him on the administration’s deportation efforts.
Pay particular attention to, again, the refreshing civil discourse (versus, again, what CNN was up to):
To cover the center, Cuomo next brought out former Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) to share his thoughts on, among other things, the government shutdown:
The wheels nearly came off when three members of Congress — two Democrats in Madeleine Dean (PA) and Ro Khana (CA) plus Republican Jim Jordan (OH) — joined and Dean tried to push Jordan’s buttons with liberal talking points about the shutdown being the GOP’s fault:
The three were allowed to tussle before the hosts stepped in, including O’Reilly:
Smith had enough and stormed off the set, citing their squabbling after hearing from an air traffic controller working (without pay in the shutdown) who had to leave the town hall after asking his question to head to his other job with DoorDash (click the X post to read in full):
The next block featured MeidasTouch commentator Adam Mockler and Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet, one of the late Charlie Kirk’s closest friends. That’s where the conversation began with Kolvet sharing what he’s learned about our politics since Kirk’s assassination:
Unsurprisingly, Mockler tried to derail the conversation by arguing the left has little to answer for, but it’s the right with a political violence problem:
On Monday’s CNN NewsNight, Mockler compared Donald Trump to Hamas, so this squared.
Kolvet wasn’t having any of this:
To his credit, Cuomo put the train back on the tracks:
Mockler kept coming, though, invoking the dumb and racist Young Republican group chats (pardon the misspelling):
O’Reilly ended this bout by asking both where they go for news and demanded specifics:
Cuomo shepherded them off to wrap the evening with Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross and Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN) to offer some reflections.
Burchett cited his fierce partisan battles with Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN), but both are friends of his. In Cohen’s case, Burchett shared Cohen even called Burchett’s mother when his dad died:
After O’Reilly and Smith gave their closing remarks, Cuomo did the same and reiterated his opening remarks about NewsNation and, more broadly, “conversation” being “the cure” to our country’s divisions:
This was a very ambitious thing for NewsNation to do as a start-up. It is not the easiest way or the most successful way to make noise in the media today and revenue and relevance as a result of that. But we know it's the right way. We know conversation is the cure and playing to a side is killing us. So, thank you for being part of the solution
