Star Wars alum Mark Hamill is calling for Americans to spend their night as far away from CNN and Donald Trump as possible. The former president will be making his first television appearance since he was found liable for battery and defamation in a lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. Hamill was quick to send his congratulations to Carroll in the afterglow of the ruling, tweeting a glittery “congratulations” to the victorious author.
The actor has been incredibly vocal about his dislike for the former president over the years. His response to CNN’s Town Hall is no exception. Less than an hour later, he encouraged his fans not to tune into the CNN-hosted Town Hall featuring the disgrace of a former president.
While Hamill’s #NotLookingAtYou_CNN didn’t manage to pull a very large crowd, he isn’t the only social media user feeling frustration over the upcoming “debate” stage. #BoycottCNN has gained traction in the Twitter sphere with numerous commenters lambasting the station for giving Trump a platform after the ruling.
Commenters’ ire wasn’t centered solely on the verdict. Some users likened the Town Hall to giving Vladimir Putin a prime-time interview, others pointed to host Kaitlan Collins’ ties to Tucker Carlson as a sign that CNN had designs on becoming Trump’s newest mouthpiece. Most of all, user consensus was that the interview would consist of softball questions when all the man deserves is a cold, hard jail cell.
For years, Trump has railed against journalists, frequently calling them “enemies of the people” and decrying networks like CNN as fake news. The tone on social media reflects a public that is tired of the loud-mouthed businessman pushing his agenda through a media mouthpiece. Now that Fox News has failed him, Trump has turned to CNN.
The switch feels a little like the swap from the Empire to the New Order. The only thing that has changed is the uniform. The gambit seems obvious, and swaths of people, including Mr. Hamill, are tired of the circus. Though not quite enough for complete comfort, Trump was polling at around 50% with conservatives in the latter half of April.
CNN could always surprise viewers with some incredibly difficult questions, or by allowing Trump to squirm, but until the night is over, we’re just going to have to speculate that the interview will go down much like Maria Bartiromo’s 2020 interview.
There are a plethora of ways one could spend their evening, but if you’d like to participate in The Thin Man marathon with Mark Hamill, the series can be rented for $2.99 from any major digital platform, or it can be streamed from Watch TCM with a subscription. For my part, I’ll be treating the Town Hall like Trump treated his own trial against E. Jean Carroll. I’d rather miss it and go play golf in Ireland instead.