CNN Chief Jeff Zucker: Trump’s Attacks on Network Part of a Personal Beef With Me

CNN president Jeff Zucker believes President Donald Trump‘s attacks on the network are — at least in part — personal.

Appearing on the Axe Files podcast, the CNN chief told host David Axelrod that he believes there are three reasons the network has found itself a frequent target of the president. First, Zucker believes Trump’s taunts are a nod to CNN’s overall relevance. Second, the CNN president thinks that Trump considers CNN important because it was a major New York institution during his rise in the ’80s and ’90s.

And third? Zucker — who became friendly with Trump during his tenure as president of NBC, when The Apprentice was on the air — thinks the president’s animus “has to do with me.”

“We’ve had this long, 20-plus year relationship, that for a long time was quite strong,” Zucker said. “And Donald Trump did not understand, in the end, that just because we were friends didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be subjected to the proper scrutiny. He thought CNN should give him a pass because we were friends. He thought CNN should be like Fox News and give him glowing coverage all the time.”

Also during the interview, Zucker defended giving Trump a significant amount of airtime during the early portions of the 2016 campaign.

“The first couple months, most national news media organizations did not take it seriously,” Zucker said. “CNN did. And we turned out to be right.”

Axelrod presented the counter point — that CNN helped make Trump a viable candidate. Zucker argued that Trump was the frontrunner long before he started getting blanket coverage on the network.

“I don’t think CNN made him number one in three weeks, okay?” Zucker said. “I think that he had that appeal.”

Zucker added, “I think what we have always done — whether it was at the Today show or CNN — is we’ve never been above what the audience is interested in. And I think this idea that you should only feed the audience spinach, and you should tell them what’s important, I reject that.”

Listen above, via CNN. The relevant portion begins at approximately the 57:00 mark.

[image via screengrab]