CNN, DeSantis reach inflection point of 2024 campaign 

CNN is set to air an interview Tuesday with a subject who has been in recent weeks a rare “get” for mainstream media outlets: Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.  

The interview, which will be conducted by CNN’s lead political anchor Jake Tapper following a DeSantis campaign stop in South Carolina, is a significant moment for the candidate and the network.  

DeSantis is trying to break through the Republican presidential primary field and close a polling gap with former President Trump, while CNN is looking to turn the page from a tumultuous summer that has seen its editorial strategy heavily scrutinized and its top executive ousted.  

The forum for DeSantis will be a sharp departure from Trump’s May town hall with CNN, which took on the vibe of one of his campaign rallies. The crowd for the event was loudly supportive of him, making it seem as if the journalist conducting the town hall, Kaitlan Collins, was on opposing turf.  

It served as a major one-night ratings boon for CNN, but it came under heavy criticism externally and internally.  

DeSantis’s interview with Tapper will be taped after the governor makes an announcement on military policy and feature a one-on-one format between the journalist and candidate.  

Tapper has interviewed DeSantis when he was a member of the House of Representatives, but the Republican has kept his major media moments confined to conservative outlets or Florida-based press supportive of him since declaring his candidacy for president.  

The interview could be a challenge for Tapper and CNN because the DeSantis campaign is signaling an aggressive approach.  

“DeSantis is ready to take on everything the media throws at him,” a tweet from the governor’s war room account read Monday morning promoting the interview with Tapper.  

“DeSantis Needs to Take Scalps at CNN,” a headline on an Op-Ed in the conservative National Review declared the same day.  

The booking of DeSantis could also benefit CNN, which has seen its ratings fall most sharply of the three leading cable networks since Trump left office and has undergone significant changes in recent months. 

DeSantis is unlikely to generate the kind of ratings the network won from the Trump town hall, but it is a high-profile chance for Tapper to signal the kind of serious journalism CNN wants to be seen as exemplifying.  

“This is good for us in the sense that we’ll actually get to break some news on policy and substance,” one CNN source told The Hill. “[DeSantis] probably won’t rate [like Trump], but I’m not sure that’s the point of something like this.” 

Former network CEO Chris Licht, who was fired by the network’s parent company just weeks after orchestrating the Trump town hall, ruffled feathers inside the cable news giant for advocating for a more centrist tone than CNN was known for during the Trump years, when it took on a highly combative approach with the GOP administration.  

On the night of the Trump town hall, CNN featured a panel that included Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) who forcefully pushed back on criticism of Trump being offered by the network’s leading pundits. 

Staffers inside the network at the time described a feeling of embarrassment and frustration with CNN leadership, which they said had handed Trump a political win that made a mockery of their work. 

Tapper specifically has shown a sensitivity for how CNN covers Trump. 

While anchoring the network’s live coverage of Trump’s federal indictment in Miami last month, Tapper admonished the network’s control room for playing a video of Trump supporters singing “Happy Birthday” to the former president at the Cuban restaurant, warning he was trying to turn the spectacle “into a campaign ad.” 

The anchor has also spoken about internal strife at CNN under Licht, whose vision for the network the anchor says he supported.  

Insiders at CNN said the DeSantis interview, which will come with a different format and with a different political figure, could be a step in the right direction for a network operating under a microscope in how it covers major figures on the right while trying to find its footing in the increasingly competitive cable news landscape.   

“Is there a world for non-ideological, nonpartisan TV journalism? I think there is,” Tapper said during a recent interview with the journalist Kara Swisher. “It’s just that most Americans aren’t news junkies, and the ones who are, when there isn’t a big news story, might like, especially in prime time, putting on their team jerseys and rooting for their side. I think that’s certainly possible. But that’s not a long-term play, that’s a short-term business decision.”