CNN host Erin Burnett will moderate a town hall next month with James Talarico, the progressive Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate, even as her network remains locked in a legal and political dispute with the Trump administration over access to White House press events.
A press release issued Monday morning announced that CNN is partnering with Jubilee Media to hold the town hall live from Texas on Wednesday, October 14. Talarico will take questions from Burnett and from a live audience of Texas voters. CNN said “the audience will be made up of Democrats, Republicans, and Independent voters.”
Jubilee is best known for a YouTube presence built around debates and discussions across the political spectrum, and its programming has drawn a following among younger viewers regardless of party.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican who defeated Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in this year’s GOP primary and is now Talarico’s opponent for the seat, has also been invited to appear at the town hall.
Burnett’s clash with the White House
Burnett previously moderated a Democrat Party primary debate for CNN in 2020 and conducted extensive interviews with Democrat candidates during the 2024 campaign. More recently, she has criticized President Trump over his decision to bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House press pool over what the administration described as inaccurate reporting.
On last Wednesday’s episode of “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Burnett said, “for Trump, fiction and lies refers to any story that he doesn’t like.” She went further, comparing the move to press restrictions in China: “this is a ban that is more likely to be seen in Beijing than Washington.”
“China’s Xi Jinping does have absolute control over the media. He has the power to silence dissenting voices,” Burnett said. “And that’s exactly what Trump is doing on the same day that he meets with Xi, where he is rolling out the red carpet for the Chinese president, something that hasn’t been done on U.S. soil. We haven’t been here in nearly a decade.”
Burnett’s record on press freedom has drawn scrutiny of its own. When Twitter banned Trump in January 2021, she did not challenge the idea that platforms should remove him over claims his remarks posed a danger. During a segment on former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) suspension from Twitter over COVID-related claims, Burnett asked guest Mike Shields, “You don’t think Twitter should stop her from using their platform to spread her message, even if it is misleading?” Shields responded, “Look, this is America. We have free speech. Even people saying dumb things are allowed in our country. Twitter is a platform that looks biased. It looks like it only does this sort of thing to conservatives.”
Court sides with the networks, but Air Force One access still cut
Days after the White House barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the press pool, U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly ruled that the three outlets must be “immediately” reinstated, siding with a lawsuit the organizations filed jointly against the administration.
Despite that ruling, the White House still excluded CNN from traveling with President Trump on Air Force One this past Saturday. Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the decision Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” saying the White House “routinely decides who can go on Air Force One” and that “this wasn’t a one-time denial of CNN. There’s all kinds of times when certain reporters are not flying or are flying.”
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