CNN Anchor Guffaws At Irony Of Trump-Backed Les Mis Show Being Streamed By Trump-Targeted Outlet

CNN anchor Kate Bolduan let out a guffaw at the irony that President Donald Trump’s attendance at a performance of Les Misérables will be streamed by a media outlet that Trump has targeted for defunding.

Trump’s hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center has prompted backlash that has included the jeering of Vance and his family at a performance in March, protests from artists, and a threatened boycott by at least ten Les Mis cast members for a performance that Trump will attend Wednesday night.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, Bolduan connected Trump’s Kennedy Center moves to a broader cultural agenda, which CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter noted includes attacking the funding for public broadcasting:

KATE BOLDUAN: And it’s also one of many ways that we have seen, and people may forget all of the changes and the moves that the president has made since taking office a second time.

How does this, when we look —

BRIAN STELTER: Right.

BOLDUAN: — at the Kennedy Center, fit in with his broader push to reshape and kind of bring to heel arts and culture across the country?

STELTER: Yeah, it’s absolutely all related, right, from him appointing Hollywood ambassadors and floating a tax — a tariff on overseas movies to his defunding of PBS and NPR, something that the House will vote on later this week.

And by the way, it’s notable the play Les Mis — if viewers at home want to watch the play, where is it streaming? It’s streaming on PBS.

BOLDUAN: (LAUGHS)

STELTER: It’s streaming on the Public Broadcasting System, which Trump is trying to defund. We will see if Congress goes along with that effort.

But that’s all related. It is all of a piece of Trump trying to have a hold on culture because he felt he did not have it in his first term. We remember there were moments in his first term where performers would boo or would turn their backs or would not show up at events. And so that is the specter for tonight’s performance as well.

As you mentioned, CNN reported back in May that some performers in Les Mis are choosing not to show up tonight. We don’t exactly know who. You’ll have to wait to see the Playbill and see who is in what role at the performance.

But the head of the Kennedy Center floated a blacklist of those performers who choose not to perform in front of the president. That is a chilling moment to have the head of the Kennedy Center saying maybe they should be scorned and not booked — not hired for other performances.

And that really tells you what’s going on here. It’s not about free speech; it’s about favored speech. In this case, Trump loves Les Mis and they will be performing it for him tonight.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. It’s great to see you, Brian. Let’s see. Really appreciate it — John.

BERMAN: A big night for you there.

Watch above via CNN News Central.