For about 30 minutes on Monday night, former President Donald J. Trump held an impromptu musical town hall outside of Philadelphia, standing onstage and swaying to songs like “Time To Say Goodbye” by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, and “Hallelujah” by Rufus Wainwright.
Both liberal and conservative media outlets described Mr. Trump’s sudden broadcast of his campaign playlist as awkward — but through far different lenses.
Mr. Trump had been answering questions from a crowd of a few hundred people with Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa. But after multiple medical emergencies in the crowd paused the question-and-answer portion of the event, Mr. Trump said: “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music.”
Liberal outlets described the event using words like “weird” and “disastrous.” They said that the event was evidence of cognitive decline in Mr. Trump, and that he wasn’t listening to the concerns of voters. Mr. Trump and his campaign have said he does not suffer from any cognitive impairment.
Conservative outlets paid far less attention to the event, though those that covered it acknowledged that the scene was bizarre. Most also emphasized that the medical emergencies in the audience had caused the detour. Some accused Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, of unfairly mocking Mr. Trump for his choice to play music and his movements onstage.
Here’s how a selection of outlets on the left and the right covered the news:
FROM THE LEFT
The New Republic
The New Republic, a liberal site, described the incident in one article as a “weird musical detour.” In that article, Hafiz Rashid, a writer for the site, said Mr. Trump’s choices on Monday were part of a larger pattern of cognitive issues. He pointed to recent events in which Mr. Trump had stumbled over his words.
“It’s the latest, and strangest, example of Trump showing clear signs of mental decline, even as he insists otherwise,” Mr. Rashid wrote.
Mr. Trump has dismissed concerns about his cognitive capability and insisted that he has passed cognitive tests. Steven Cheung, Mr. Trump’s campaign communications director, rejected the notion that Mr. Trump had cognitive issues in a statement, saying he “does multiple public events every single day and the public can see he is sharper and more focused than ever before.”
In a separate article, Parker Molloy, a contributor to The New Republic, wrote that the event “wasn’t a charming detour or a moment of levity; it was a bewildering departure from the friendly campaign event.”
“With the election just weeks away, one would expect a candidate to seize every opportunity to address voters’ concerns,” Ms. Molloy wrote. “Instead, Trump chose to play D.J., leaving many in the crowd puzzled.”
FROM THE LEFT
HuffPost
HuffPost, a liberal news site, ran several headlines in all-caps that seemed to make light of the town hall. One all-caps headline said: “What. Was. That. Joker Twists Town Hall Into Musical.” Another said, “Don Gets Weird: 40-minute Musical.”
Igor Bobic, a senior reporter for HuffPost who covers Congress, the White House and political campaigns, wrote in a news article that Mr. Trump had been taking questions from the audience on the issues like housing affordability, but that he “seemed to grow bored with the format after two people fainted in the audience.”
In another article, Ed Mazza, an overnight editor at HuffPost, wrote in a news article that the event came “amid a new focus on his health and cognition due to speeches marked by slurred words, confusion over names and location, and lengthy, rambling digressions.”
FROM THE RIGHT
The Washington Examiner
The Washington Examiner, a right-leaning site, ran an article with the headline, “Trump town hall takes a turn for the surreal.”
Annabella Rosciglione, a breaking news reporter for the publication, described the town hall in vivid detail, offering a chronological exposition of the evening’s events.
She quoted Mr. Trump calling for the event organizers to play “Ave Maria” while medical professionals attended to one of the sick attendees, and noted that the song played two more times that night.
She referred to the event as a “music show,” and said Mr. Trump played nine songs, which ranged in genre from opera to disco.
“During the musical portion, Trump performed some of his signature dance moves and sometimes pointed to audience members, but he mainly swayed onstage,” she wrote.
Ms. Rosciglione also reported that, “on his way out of the event, Trump spoke to attendees to the tune of ‘Memory’ from the musical Cats.”
FROM THE RIGHT
RedState
Writing for RedState, a conservative blog, Nick Arama, a contributor to the site, noted that Mr. Trump answered a range of questions at the event and said that Mr. Trump “showed more concern for his supporters than for his own safety.”
“One of the people who fell ill even appeared to feel better as ‘Ave Maria’ was playing and the crowd cheered,” Mr. Arama wrote.
He also focused on Ms. Harris’s reaction to Mr. Trump’s town hall. After her campaign team posted on X that “Trump appears lost, confused, and frozen onstage as multiple songs play for 30+ minutes and the crowd pours out of the venue early,” Ms. Harris’s personal account reposted it with a short message: “Hope he’s okay.”
Mr. Arama said the post showed that Ms. Harris was “resorting to more and more desperate measures” to mock Mr. Trump because of her “imploding” campaign.
The post How Media Outlets on the Left and Right Covered Trump’s Musical Town Hall appeared first on New York Times.
