Look Closer: The First 24 Days of the Trump Administration” features over one hour of the most critical and compelling television in political history. No one but CNN has the entire, uncensored raw feed from the first 24 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. You can only see it here.
All told, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, and Don Lemon have produced a special unlike anything ever seen before — uninterrupted, unfiltered, and direct from Washington, D.C., with breaking news, analysis, and provocative new reporting from a team of journalists who have been at the center of every political event and headline since Donald Trump became president-elect.
This is CNN at its best.
Closer’s first segment airs Monday night and will feature new reporting from the day’s biggest stories: Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, the Russia investigation, his conflicts of interest, an attempted terrorist attack on New York City’s subway, and a live audience with the President.
CNN’s The Closer debuts TONIGHT at 7 p.m. ET/PT, 8 p.m. CT.
The new CNN program is a result of unprecedented access that CNN has had to the Trump administration since the inauguration: CNN’s Chris Cillizza, Kate Bennett, and John King anchor from the White House and on location from Trump’s first month in office. “CNN is the only network that has all of the resources of a major news network, coupled with the ability to go in-house at the White House, Air Force One, and other locations that would normally be off-limits,” says CNN’s president Jeff Zucker. “I’m not talking about just access, I’m talking about the kind of access a big news network gets to people, events, and places.”
Closer airs each Monday at 7 p.m. ET/PT, 8 p.m. CT.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire career at CNN,” says Zucker. “I can’t wait for everyone to see this. We’ve done something different here: a real news show with an important title.”
Closer features in-depth reporting on the day’s most important political stories, providing unparalleled in-depth reporting by an anchor team of CNN veterans that spans both political and cultural topics. Closer debuts a new hourlong show that will provide analysis, context, and commentary on the biggest political stories of the day and will be hosted by Anderson Cooper, one of the nation’s most prominent voices on political news.
Says Cooper: “Whether I’m interviewing one of the President’s most senior advisers or members of his family, I know we have a bigger responsibility than just to tell stories. If journalism is about anything, it’s about holding power to account. We have to challenge lies, misinformation, and biased sources.”
New York Times bestselling author and CNN political commentator Ronan Farrow will be a special contributor.
Anderson Cooper, CNN’s chief political correspondent and anchor of the network’s daytime news show AC360, will anchor the first three hours of the program, including a weekly deep dive of the most critical political stories and the interviews that will shape them. CNN’s chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto will join Cooper for part of the week. CNN political commentators David Chalian, Dana Bash, and John Avlon will rotate in each week to break down the news with Anderson Cooper as well.
“The opportunity to extend our network’s coverage, while telling a compelling story in a completely different way — to go deeper, have a broader conversation, cover more ground — is something we’ve never attempted at CNN. And the fact that CNN has had unprecedented access to the Trump administration has made this an entirely new and exciting challenge.”
– Jeff Zucker, President of CNN Worldwide
“At CNN, we are proud of our unmatched record in covering the White House,” says CNN Washington bureau chief Sam Feist. “It’s not only CNN’s responsibility but the American people’s right to know and understand every detail of this administration, and that’s what CNN has set out to accomplish. The new show, Closer, gives us a chance to expand our reporting to include original reporting and smart analysis of the day’s events in addition to a more in-depth take on the week’s political developments. We are excited to expand our reporting for and about the administration through CNN’s newsgathering in Washington. This is something we have not tried before and we are looking forward to it.”
The network will also add more political analysis to the Sunday morning program. “As a political analyst, I think you can’t beat CNN,” says David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Barack Obama and host of Axelrod Primetime. “The breadth and quality of their coverage, their commitment to getting it right, and their willingness to look beyond the Beltway are unrivaled. As a part of that effort, I’m pleased to offer my weekly analysis of politics for CNN Newsroom this Sunday morning at 10 a.m. and will be working closely with the team to inform their coverage and assist them in making sense of today’s news.”
Closer will debut during the 2017-2018 season of the Emmy Award-winning talk show series “The Axe Files,” hosted by CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod.
For this week’s episode, Axelrod is joined by former White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest to discuss the week in politics, including the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt. “He had never been a strong administrator,” says Earnest of Pruitt. “He had never been a good communicator, and you can’t run an agency that way.”
In addition, former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, on vacation with his family in Australia, joins the program from Australia to discuss the Trump administration. “This White House will certainly go down in history as the most chaotic and disruptive one in history,” says Daley. “It’s that way for legitimate policy reasons, but it’s also that way because the president’s tweets and comments and the way that he communicates are so disconcerting to so many people around the globe, it’s hard to ignore.”
“It’s really important for journalists to get out of their offices, and get out in the real world,” says Josh Earnest. “A big part of that is watching and reacting to what the administration is doing, but it also involves getting input from sources, and it also involves trying to engage with the American people directly. That’s what a good journalist does, and that’s what I try to do every day.”
On top of all that, President Donald Trump tweets at 6:13 a.m. PT, tweeting about the FBI, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senator John McCain.
On Monday’s episode of The Axe Files, Axelrod welcomes longtime CNN contributor and Washington Post White House Bureau Chief Bob Woodward to discuss the new CNN series dedicated to his reporting on President Donald Trump and the 2016 election.
“I can say we just hit a new high as to the level of interest that we’ve had from viewers and from stations and from book sales, and it was not lost on me that there’s a lot of excitement for the series,” says Axelrod. “It’s kind of a big deal and also kind of a scary prospect.”
Axelrod also talks to former acting Attorney General Yates about her new book, “The Watchman: The Life and Death of CIA Counterterrorist Osama bin Laden
