CNN Anchor Laughs At Trump Ratings Decline For Inauguration: ‘That’s A Significant Drop-Off!’

CNN anchor John Berman couldn’t suppress a laugh at the decline in ratings for President Donald Trump’s inauguration compared to President Joe Biden’s in 2021 — and Trump’s in 2017.

Cable News outlets went all in on their coverage of Trump’s inauguration Monday. CNN’s Jake Tapper was joined by a galaxy of CNN anchors and personalities like John King, Dana Bash, Kaitlan Collins, Anderson Cooper, Maggie Haberman, and many more for CNN’s live coverage of Trump’s inauguration to a second term.

Over on MSNBC, hosts like Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and others covered the proceedings with something akin to horror, while Fox News Channel’s coverage was co-anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

But all of that coverage couldn’t keep up with inaugurations of the recent past, as television ratings were “down bigly” according to Sarah Rumpf — down 27% from 2021 and nearly 20% lower than the 2017 inauguration.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, CNN analyst and former Trump White House senior aide Alyssa Farah Griffin joined Berman to discuss the decline, and Berman noted with a laugh that even considering online viewership, “That’s a significant drop-off!”:

JOHN BERMAN: Speaking of backwards looking at past grievances, some of the television ratings for the inauguration have come out. Fewer people watched than watched when President Biden was inaugurated four years ago, fewer people watched than when Donald Trump was inaugurated the first time eight years ago.

Now, part of this might be, you know, shifting television audiences, but (LAUGHS) it’s a significant drop off there.

How do you think President Trump feels about that? You’ve been in the White House for some of these discussions about viewers and ratings, and–

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I have a feeling he’s going to push back and say the streaming numbers were there and it was the most watched inauguration in history.

But listen, we live in a deeply polarized country. Half the country is thrilled that Donald Trump is back in the White House and the other is exhausted and didn’t want to tune in. And that’s what the next four years is going to underscore.

JOHN BERMAN: Alyssa Farah Griffin, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

Watch above via CNN News Central.