Trump Demands CNN & MSNBC Have ‘Licenses’ Revoked For Not Airing His Victory Speech, Despite Cable Channels Not Having Licenses

Former President Donald Trump demanded that CNN and MNBC should have their television licenses revoked after they refused to air his victory speech after the Iowa caucuses on live television.

“MSNBC and CNN refused to air my victory speech,” Trump stated in a speech he made in New Hampshire. “I think of it because they are crooked, they’re dishonest, and frankly, they should have their licenses – or whatever they have – taken away.”

“They put on Nikki Haley,” he added. “She came in third, a distant third, like I mean, a distant third.”

“And they put on Ron DeSanctimonious, who came in a boring second,” Trump went on to say. “Now he, we don’t talk about him too much because over here, he’s polling at 4%. So we’ll save him where he seems to go up. But we haven’t found that place yet, he’s gone down a lot.”

The former president’s comments after the Iowa caucuses focused on the false information he often relates regarding the validity of the 2020 presidential election. He made inaccurate statements, including that mail-in ballots helped President Joe Biden win.

For some time now, CNN and NBC have refused to air any of Trump’s speeches live or have even cut away from them when they consist of false claims, which are very hard to fact-check in real time.

However, the former president’s demand for the revocation of CNN and MSNBC’s licenses is odd since such licenses do not exist for cable channels.

Cable channels do not have to obey the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) standards the same way broadcast news networks do. No standard makes it necessary for broadcast stations to air victory speeches made by presidential candidates in state-level nominating contests.

“There is a reason that we and other news organizations have generally stopped giving an unfiltered live platform to remarks by former President Trump,” MSNBC Rachel Maddow explained on the night of January 15. “It is not out of spite. It is not a decision that we relish. It is a decision that we regularly revisit, and honestly, earnestly, it is not an easy decision, but there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things. And that is a fundamental truth of our business and who we are.”

“And so his [Trump’s] remarks [during his victory speech at the Iowa caucuses] tonight will not air here live,” she stated. “We will monitor them and let you know about any news that he makes.”

Last May, Trump ridiculed the CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins, who asked about him refusing to accept his 2020 presidential election loss, the post-election period and the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. She also asked him whether or not he showed anyone the classified documents found at Mar-A-Lago, a resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump repeatedly denied having committed any wrongdoing during the Capitol riot and declared to have “declassified” records before having taken top secret documents to Mar-A-Lago, even though he has never produced evidence to support that claim. Additionally, he refused to accept the verdict in which he was liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.

In November, the former president attacked MSNBC on Truth Social back in November, charging it with “election interference.”