CNN canceled its upcoming town halls featuring Democrat presidential candidates slated for next week due to the ongoing Senate impeachment trial, the outlet reported on Thursday.
CNN was slated to hold a two-day town hall event for the Democrat presidential candidates at Drake University on Tuesday, January 28, and Wednesday, January 29, just days before the February 3 Iowa caucuses.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Andrew Yang (D), Tom Steyer (D), Pete Buttigieg (D), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Joe Biden (D) were expected to attend. However, the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate will make it virtually impossible for Sens. Sanders, Warren, and Klobuchar to participate.
“The cancellation shows how the impeachment trial is upending the 2020 campaign schedule just days before the Iowa caucuses,” CNN noted. “Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren are absent from the trail as they serve as the jurors in the trial.”
Organizers are working on rescheduling the event.
The development comes days after Sanders announced the cancellation of his scheduled campaign event at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
“Sen. Sanders will not be able to attend tomorrow’s rally due to the impeachment schedule in the U.S. Senate,” the campaign said in a statement on Tuesday:
Meanwhile, the first week of the Senate impeachment trial has fallen flat with viewers, Nielsen ratings indicate.
As Breitbart News reported:
On Tuesday, the roughly 12-hour battle between President Donald Trump’s legal team and House Democrat impeachment managers attracted an audience on 11 million, down from 13.8 million from when the lower chamber took up the issue. The figures were garnered from 4.5 hours of coverage from six cable networks: ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, NBC, and MSNBC. The ratings did not include those who watched the marathon hearing being lived streamed on social media.
Notably, the ratings did not include those watching on social media via live-streams.