CNN

The CNN Town Hall With Former President Trump Is a Chaotic Event

By A.J. Katz 

CNN’s Republican Presidential Town Hall with Donald Trump was an intense event. The former president took questions from CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and a live audience of New Hampshire Republican and undeclared voters on Wednesday evening.

To be frank, a lot it was difficult to watch. Collins took one for the team and tried her best to correct the record as often she could. (A glaring exception being her failure to push back on his false claims about abortion pro-choice supporters killing babies at nine months and after birth).

Focusing Trump’s attention on the subject of the moment and holding him to account has been a monumental task over the past eight years, and Collins had her hands full too.

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The former commander in chief again refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election, instead repeating false claims that the election was somehow rigged against him.

Collins pointed to statements by Trump’s own election officials noting the election was conducted fairly.

Didn’t matter.

“They found millions of votes on camera, on government cameras, where they were stuffing ballot boxes. So with all of that, I think it’s a shame what happened. I think it’s a very sad thing for our country. I think it’s a very sad thing, frankly, for the world, because if you look at what’s gotten to our country, our country has gone to hell,” Trump claimed, while continuing on to criticize the Biden administration.

Trump also said he does not think a recent verdict in which a Manhattan federal jury found that he was liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996 disqualifies him from being president or will have an impact on women voters.

The federal jury awarded Carroll $5 million for battery and defamation earlier this week.

“A Manhattan jury found you sexually abused writer E. Jean You’ve denied this. But what do you say to voters who say it disqualifies you from being president?” asked Collins.

Trump answered that he didn’t think there were many voters who would think that. He claimed that the case was made up and that the whole ordeal was politically motivated. He repeated that he did not know Carroll, but said that he took a photo “years ago” with her and her husband.

“This woman, I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is,” Trump said.

When asked if the jury’s decision would deter women from voting for him, the former president said, “No, I don’t think so.”

In one of the more depressing portions of the broadcast, Trump later justified comments he made on Access Hollywood tape about how famous people could grab women by the p***y, and said he won’t take those comments back.

The tape came up in Trump’s deposition as part of the civil case with Carroll.

“I said women let you, I didn’t say you grab… I said women let — you know, you didn’t use that word — but if you look, women let you,” Trump said. “Now, they said will you take that back? I said, look, for a million years this is the way it’s been. I want to be honest this is the way it’s been,” he added.

“You would like me to take that back. I can’t take it back because it happens to be true,” Trump added.

Staying on the theme of Trump’s complicated relationship with the opposite sex, he at one point launched personal attacks at the CNN moderator during an exchange about the classified documents case, calling her a “NASTY person!”

Trump: All of a sudden, they raided my house. They didn’t raid the house of Joe Biden. They didn’t raid Obama.

Collins: Joe Biden didn’t ignore a subpoena to get those documents back like you did (crosstalk) But that’s the question that investigators have, I think, is why you held on to those documents when you knew the federal government was seeking them and then had given you a subpoena to return them.

Trump: Are you ready? Are you ready? Can I talk?

Collins: Yeah. What’s the answer?

Trump: Can, do you mind?

Collins: I would like for you to answer the question

Trump: It’s very simple to answer.

Collins: That’s why I asked it.

Trump: It’s very simple to… You’re a nasty person! I’ll tell you.

The audience then proceeded to laugh and applaud.

Collins: Can you answer why? Why you held on to the documents?

“You’re so wrong you don’t know the subject!” Trump yelled at Collins moments later. “I do know the subject,” Collins replied.

Later in the town hall, Trump also didn’t say whether he wants Russia or Ukraine to win their war.

“I don’t think in terms of winning and losing. I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people,” he said.

When asked by Collins for a second time whether or not the former president wants Ukraine to win, Trump still would not answer directly, instead saying that he wants “everybody to stop dying.”

“Russians and Ukrainians, I want them to stop dying,” he said, going so far as to add, “And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”

CNN issued a statement after the event praising Collins’ performance as host: “Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked tough, fair and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner. That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

Trump allies were reportedly satisfied with how the event went for their guy. Trump himself thanked Collins for hosting the conversation, just minutes after calling her a nasty person.

Other industry figures, however, were far more pessimistic.

Collins’ CNN colleague Jake Tapper didn’t criticize CNN like many in the media did, instead criticizing the candidate and defending his colleague:

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