Former CNN chief Chris Licht said he regretted doing an interview for an Atlantic magazine profile that precipitated his departure from the left-leaning news channel.
“If I can tell anybody one thing, don’t bring a reporter to the gym,” Licht told a Manhattan audience Saturday — a reference to a quote in which he boasted about being more athletic than his predecessor, former CNN boss Jeff. Zucker.
In the 15,000-word profile, the then-CNN chief revealed that he was thin-skinned, reclusive and envious of Zucker, who was still popular in the eyes of the network’s stars.
In one particularly chilling passage, Licht was quoted doing squats with heavy weights at the gym, saying, “Zucker couldn’t do that sh—t.”
“The Atlantic article I absolutely should not have done,” Licht said during an interview conducted by ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith at the New York Press Club Press Conference on Saturday.
He added that he initially resisted the idea of agreeing to the magazine interview, but eventually relented due to his “arrogance”.
“Imagine saying yes and then, by the way, saying no a few times, but in the end, saying yes because you know what, when this comes out in a year, I’ll have saved everything,” Licht said.
“Now, I had never failed at anything before. So I absolutely thought, you know what, it’s been a year, they’re going to write about ‘wow, look at all these great things that have happened,’” Licht told The Atlantic profile.
“So no, I should have done that.”
Licht, whose disastrous 13-month tenure as head of CNN ended last June when he was let go by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav admitted on Saturday that he failed to earn “the trust of the organization,” which ultimately led to his ouster.
“When you’re trying to change something dramatically, you can’t do it alone,” Licht said.
“You have to build the trust of the organization. They have to believe in you. And I didn’t build that trust.”
Licht said he was tapped to head CNN during a “crazy time” although he added that he was “not letting myself go.”
“I wasn’t able to, in the time I was there, build the trust so that people would tune out the noise and follow me that way,” Licht said.
When asked by Smith to “define” what led to his impeachment, Licht mentioned the May 2023 televised town hall with Donald Trump — during which moderator Kaitlan Collins was frequently interrupted by the president-elect as his supporters cheered in New Hampshire . his answers.
Licht on Saturday defended the decision to host a town hall with Trump. At the time, CNN staffers slammed Licht for the fiasco — accusing him of putting Collins in a “no-win situation.”
On Saturday, Licht defended the decision to stage the town hall.
“I still believe today that it was the right thing to do,” he told Smith. Licht said he regretted that CNN did not inform viewers that the town hall included an audience made up of Trump supporters and center-right voters.
“Remember, we hadn’t seen Trump in a very long time,” Licht said of the thought process that went into the town hall broadcast.
“That was the first time he answered very difficult questions in a long time. And the fact that his greed resonated with voters in New Hampshire, that’s part of the story, but people at home had to be told that, and that’s one thing I would have done differently.”
Licht said the backlash came from people who “didn’t want change” and that he reacted by “choosing[ing] some fights I shouldn’t have picked.”
“There are certain things I should have — certain alliances I should have built, or people I should have trusted more,” he said.
The Post has sought comment from CNN.
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