‘WHAT?!’ CNN Stunned Trump Took No Questions at Big Post-Conviction Presser

CNN’s panel participants monitoring Donald Trump’s “news conference” at Trump Tower Friday clearly felt cheated after the former president left the podium without taking reporters’ questions.

The network cut out of Trump’s speech about 20 minutes into his rambling, off-the-cuff remarks about his conviction on 34 felony counts, while Abby Phillip, Paula Reid, John Berman, and Erin Burnett discussed whether any of Trump’s words violated Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order.

“He called the judge ‘the devil,’ which was one of the less nice things you can say about somebody,” Berman said as Trump could be seen on the split screen walking out of the frame.

Burnett jumped in, saying, “Let me just interrupt you for one second, John. He’s done, and he did not take questions.”

Reid let out an incredulous, “What?!”

BURNETT: Right, right. So, let’s just say, I just want everyone to understand our anticipation — and Trump’s gonna do what he’s gonna do — but our anticipation was that this would be about an hour and he might take questions. So, it was 40 minutes and he took no questions. That’s actually interesting, John. It’s unlike him.

BERMAN: It’s a set piece. He went out there. He said what he wanted to say — we’ll let people decide whether or not it was effective, what he said there — and he’s leaving. Maybe he doesn’t want to be questioned on it.

…

REID: But the fact that he didn’t take questions, I mean, Abby, we were both at the White House. Then-President Trump would come out any day to answer questions about anything. So, the fact that he’s not willing to take questions, follow-ups, about what he said about this case, that’s surprising and suggests that maybe he doesn’t have a lot of answers.

Burnett then threw to Wolf Blitzer, who defined “news conference.”

“They called it a ‘news conference.’ And, just to be precise, a news conference is when reporters are allowed to ask questions following an opening statement. No questions were allowed to be asked. He didn’t answer any questions. So, it really wasn’t a news conference, it was simply a statement or a speech by Donald Trump.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.