How cable TV covered Trump's announcement he's running for president: They cut away

Donald Trump made a low-energy announcement Tuesday night that everyone knew was coming: He is running for president in 2024.

CNN derided the announcement, MSNBC ignored it and Fox News praised it to the skies.

Just like old times. It was a reminder that people who go on about the good old days don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.

Trump began with the usual bluster. “America’s comeback starts right now,” he said.

For the record, at 7:23 p.m. Arizona time, Trump made it official (he had actually filed the paperwork earlier in the day): “In order to make America great and glorious again, I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

I don’t know if all of that is going to fit on a red hat.

Ouch: 'SNL' roasts Kari Lake in post-election episode: 'I’ll burn Arizona to the ground'

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale: 'Trump has not gotten more accurate'

Trump's speech was filled with lies, boasts and misinformation, meaning a big comeback for Daniel Dale, the excellent fact-checker for CNN. “Trump has not gotten more accurate,” Dale tweeted. Subtle wit, that guy.

On the air Dale ran down several — but not all, there wasn’t enough time — misleading comments and lies the former president uttered.

The big one, the one that will get the headlines, was Trump's implication that China may have meddled in the 2020 presidential election — the one that Trump lost to Joe Biden, leading Trump to encourage his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The one that inspired the campaigns of unsuccessful candidates like Arizona’s Kari Lake and Blake Masters.

The one that brings us back here.

'He was sort of on script at first,' a former Trump aide said

Trump also played this greatest hit: “I’m a victim.” It was surprising the guests gathered at Mar-a-Lago, where the event took place, didn’t hold up lighters.

“This started out as professional,” Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House communications director, said of the speech. “He was sort of on script at first. But then just interspersing with outright lies, dabbling into conspiracy that maybe China had something to do with the midterms, something that I haven’t even seen in the dark corners of the internet.”

Here we go again.

CNN covered the speech at the start but cut away not long after Trump made the actual announcement. MSNBC didn’t broadcast it at all, simply noting that Trump had declared he was running again. Although Alex Wagner managed this shot: “Donald Trump promised to deliver a history-making announcement today, and maybe he did. He might be the presidential candidate most resented by his own party in recent memory.”

Both were responsible ways to cover it — it is news when a former president announces he’s running again. But it’s not open-mic night for election deniers and conspiracy theorists, either.

Good stuff: Why CNN's Kyung Lah reports so much on Arizona politics

Fox News was so over-the-top slobbering it was embarrassing

And then there was Fox News. In fairness, Trump was so long-winded even his formerly favorite network cut away. But not before Sean Hannity, during whose show Trump spoke (until he went on so long he cut into Laura Ingraham’s) and his toadies lapped it all up.

“It’s a forward-looking speech that recognizes the disaster of the last two years,” Pete Hegseth told Hannity. “This looks like Trump in as good a form as you’ve ever seen him, sticking to the issues that matter to his voters.”

Too much? Too sycophantic? Hold my beer, says Mike Huckabee.

“Absolutely brilliant speech,” Huckabee told Hannity.

So brilliant that Trump was still speaking when Huckabee said that.

Also from Huckabee: “The construct of the speech is pitch perfect. If he keeps on like this tonight, he is unbeatable in 2024. Nobody can touch him. Not a Republican, not a Democrat.”

Come on. Aren’t you just the least little bit embarrassed for the guy? It’s kind of pitiful, playground stuff where you’re begging the popular kid to like you.

And for what?

“This was teleprompter Trump — never been the most powerful or effective spokesperson,” historian Tim Naftali said on CNN. “This was Trump channeling Jeb Bush, very low-energy. Very unusual presentation for Donald Trump. It surprised me. It surprised me … that this was the best product he could put out.”

Honestly, is anything surprising anymore? CNN spent a lot of time talking about how poorly Trump-backed candidates fared in the midterm elections, and how a lot of Republicans want to move on.

We’ll see. Sadly, we’re going to have to.

Long haul: How TV covered highs, lows and 'worst nightmare' candidates on midterm election night

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How TV news reacted to Trump's 2024 presidential announcement