CNN officially called the 2024 presidential election in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time.
But two hours earlier, with the results already obvious to outside observers, one of the network’s top talents went rogue and called it himself.
“Donald Trump is knocking on the door,” said anchor John King at 3:21 a.m. ET. “He’s going to get there. He’s going to get there. I was going to say ‘barring this or that or the other thing.’ He’s going to get there.”
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“I’m probably not supposed to say that on television,” he added, boldly entrenching himself in the moment before moving on to a voting map. “We haven’t projected it yet, but he’s going to get there.”
When King stated the obvious, CNN had already forecast Trump was the winner of 266 electoral college votes, just four shy of the 270 required for victory.
CNN’s official election call happened when it projected swing state Wisconsin for Trump. NBC News and ABC News made near identical calls, giving the state and the general election to the Republican nominee, around the same time.
Until that point, print and broadcast outlets—with the exception of Fox News, which made a bullish call for Trump victory nearly an hour before King—used hedging words to wink at Trump’s impending victory.
“Trump poised to clinch presidency” read the chyron on the screen below King as he dispensed with the subtleties.
