Andrew Weissman: CNN Trump Town Hall Audience Is Not a Representation of the Public

EXCERPT:

WEISSMANN: "The idea that CNN sort of stacked, as you said, the audience here was — falls into the category of 'What were they thinking?' That is not a representation of the public. That just seemed like, in my view, really irresponsible. The other thing, for journalists it means you have to prepare the way you do for a trial, which is you have to be thinking — when I cross-examined, I thought through what is any possible answer, and what do I do next? 'If he says X, where do I go? What’s my Y?' So, you really have to be prepared. Now it’s obviously easier in a courtroom, in many ways, because the person is under oath, it’s a controlled setting, you get to have follow-ups, they have to answer the question, there’s a judge to enforce it. So if you’re in a much tougher position, but I think you have to be uber-prepared to — in order to do that kind of questioning."