The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up

Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico



Jeff Zucker tried to make the case that CNN does not pay a disproportionate amount of attention to Donald Trump. | AP Photo CNN president disavows responsibility for Donald Trump

The president of CNN Worldwide said he felt no responsibility Wednesday for the role of his network in the rise of Donald Trump.

“I don’t, because he has been the front-runner of the Republican Party since he announced last June,” Jeff Zucker said, according to a report from TVNewser, adding that like Hillary Clinton, his status as his party's leading candidate means he will get the most attention.

Zucker went on to say that the Manhattan real-estate mogul has been more available for interviews and has thus been on the air more than his rivals. "Just because he says ‘yes’ and has subjected himself to those interviews, and [other candidates] don’t, I’m not going to penalize him for saying ‘yes,'" Zucker said, according to the report, which also states that CNN has extended open invitations to all candidates, even some directly from Zucker himself.

In driving home his argument that the network does not pay a disproportionate amount of attention to Trump, Zucker recounted meeting with Ted Cruz's aides at the March 10 debate in Miami, where he said he offered the campaign "numerous options to come on for one-hour interviews, phone calls, town halls, etc. They all said, ‘yes yes, we want to do that.’"

But when it came to the follow-through, "it's all 'no,'" Zucker said. "My point is, you can’t have it both ways. So I actually reject that premise that we’ve given too much attention to him."

CNN and other networks (with the exception of CBS) frequently conduct live interviews with Trump over the phone, in contrast with other candidates who normally appear in studio or via remote set-up. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, however, spoke with the network on Tuesday night just moments before delivering a celebratory speech in Ohio.