Exclusive Audio of Trump Talking Classified Docs Delivers CNN Something It Hasn’t Experienced in a While — Relevance

As Elisabeth Moss’s memorable Mad Men character Peggy Olson once remarked in a Sterling Cooper pitch meeting, ”If you don't like what people are saying about you, change the conversation.”

Credit CNN with doing just that Monday.

The cable news network, which generated big headlines earlier this month after it fired its top executive, Chris Licht, came up with the scoop of the month when it exclusively obtained audio recordings of former President Donald Trump appearing to illegally and insecurely discuss classified documents containing U.S. military invasion plans in a conversation recorded in 2021.

“This is secret information,” Trump says in the recording, making what appears to be a criminally damning admission.

This audio recording is expected to be a central piece of evidence in the U.S. Justice Department’s ongoing indictment of the former president.

You can read CNN's digital report and listen to the audio here. You can also see Anderson Cooper's report here.

Linear ratings haven’t been reported, but CNN — which had its big scoop featured at the top of The Drudge Report late Monday — is almost assuredly up over what have been record-low audiences of late for the cable news channel.