CNN, MSNBC cut away from, fact-check Trump victory speech in New Hampshire

CNN and MSNBC cut away from former President Trump’s speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday night after he won the state’s primary and solidified his front-runner status in the 2024 GOP nomination.

Noting that former GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy served as “somewhat of a hype man” for Trump during his speech, CNN anchor Jake Tapper said he hadn’t “seen anything like that since Bundini Brown,” making a reference to the famous trainer and ally of boxer Muhammad Ali.

“I heard at least two or three things that need fact-checking,” Tapper continued, introducing CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale. “Obviously, Donald Trump did not win in 2020. He lost that election and that’s been adjudicated over and over again, although to the crowd he’s speaking to, they believe it even though it’s a lie.”

CNN cut away from Trump’s Tuesday night remarks, during which he railed against his former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, the only challenger remaining in the GOP primary, and attacked President Biden.

MSNBC, which had recently made a regular practice of not carrying Trump remarks live, also carried portions of his speech before cutting away to fact-check his false statements about previous elections.

“So, this is a decision that we revisit constantly and that we will revisit constantly. But tonight, we’re expecting Trump to speak momentarily,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said as part of the network’s coverage. “We are going to go to those remarks to see how he uses this moment — at least at first. We’ll see how it goes. Again, this is a decision that is one that we consider to be an open-ended, live decision.”

After Trump’s remarks concluded, Maddow called it “an unusual victory speech in New Hampshire, in which he initially — at the outset of his remarks — said that he had won New Hampshire not only in previous primaries, but had won in previous general elections. He lost both in 2016 and 2020.”

Fox News, meanwhile, carried Trump’s remarks in full.

Updated at 10:56 p.m. ET