CNN’s president says he regrets giving so much airtime to Donald Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE and his rallies on the network early in the campaign season.

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“If we made any mistake last year, it’s that we probably did put too many of his campaign rallies in those early months and let them run,” Jeff Zucker said at Harvard Kennedy School, according to BuzzFeed. “Listen, because you never knew what he would say, there was an attraction to put those on the air.”

Zucker, who was the president of NBC Entertainment when “The Apprentice” was first on TV said that even then Trump was a “publicity magnet.”

“Trump delivered on PR, he delivered on big ratings,” Zucker said.

Zucker denied that he helped secure coverage of Trump on CNN or that the network's constant coverage helped him clinch the Republican nomination.

He insisted that Trump would agree to do interviews with some of the other Republican candidates would not.

"Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioOvernight Defense: Pentagon redirects pandemic funding to defense contractors | US planning for full Afghanistan withdrawal by May | Anti-Trump GOP group puts ads in military papers Democrats step up hardball tactics as Supreme Court fight heats up Press: Notorious RBG vs Notorious GOP MORE and Jeb Bush went two months without agreeing to do an interview. That’s not Trump’s fault. That’s not CNN’s fault," he said.