CNN announced on Monday that it will host a town hall with Speaker Paul Ryan (R) next Monday, August 21st. The town hall will not be hosted in Washington, D.C., where CNN typically holds their town halls. Instead, the town hall will be held in Racine, Wisconsin, which is part of Ryan’s congressional district. The questioners will also be constituents of Ryan’s.
Chief Washington correspondent and anchor of The Lead and State of the Union Jake Tapper will anchor the special. This is not Ryan’s first town hall with CNN, he has previously appeared on two CNNÂ town halls to discuss the Republican agenda, particularly the Better Way agenda.
CNN has significantly slowed down on its use of town halls recently. The last political town hall was in May with Senator Bernie Sanders (I/D-VT) and Governor John Kasich (R-OH), but there was a climate-focused town hall with former Vice President Al Gore earlier this month. The political town halls were common early in the year and the network even hosted a debate between Senators Sanders and Ted Cruz (R-TX) on health care policy in February.