“NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite suggested Monday afternoon that Dan Rather stayed in the chair too long.
Cronkite, whom Rather replaced 24 years ago Wednesday, told CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports” in an interview televised Monday afternoon that Bob Schieffer, who will replace Rather on an interim basis, should have been anchor sooner.
“He is, to my mind, the man who, quite frankly, although Dan did a fine job, I would have liked to have seen in there a long time ago,” Cronkite said. “He would have … given the others a real run for their money.”
Cronkite said it was “quite a tribute to him” that CBS kept Rather in the job even though he had been mired in third place in the ratings for years.
Meanwhile, another television star — real estate magnate Donald Trump — wondered the same thing on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I’ve never understood how he stays in position so long,” Trump said of Rather. “How does this guy stay in position when he always has the lowest ratings?”
Trump told Chris Wallace that he wasn’t a fan of Rather ever since CBS did what he called an unfavorable report on him.
“I would have fired him a long time ago,” Trump said. Wallace asked him how, to which Trump responded: “I would have said, ‘Dan, you’re fired.”‘
Trump should have fired his hairstylist long ago. Interesting that Cronkite said that Rather overstayed his welcome.
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