Takeaways from town hall: Trump says sexual assault case was ‘fake,’ calls Jan. 6 ‘a beautiful day’
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s primetime appearance in a live CNN town hall Wednesday had the former president and 2024 presidential candidate doubling down on his false claims as he faced tough questions in an interview for the first time in years after largely sticking to friendly conservative media outlets.
Wednesday’s town hall marked Trump’s first appearance on CNN since 2016. He had branded the network “fake news” and never granted any of its journalists an interview while president. Trump’s campaign said he was appearing on the network to step outside of a GOP comfort zone as he already starts to turn his focus to a potential 2024 general election rematch with Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump’s appearance on CNN comes at a time of jarring dualities for the former president: The Republican is facing a crescendo of legal problems yet seems in a stronger position than ever to become his party’s presidential nominee, and he’s attempting to reach mainstream media viewers despite having deepened his embrace of extremists since leaving the White House.
Here’s what to know about Trump’s CNN town hall:
QUESTIONS ON SEXUAL ASSAULT
Trump’s appearance came a day after a New York jury found him liable for sexually abusing a woman nearly 30 years ago and defaming her when she spoke about it publicly.
Jurors awarded columnist E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages. The jury rejected her claim of rape and instead found Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual assault. Trump denied it, saying he never encountered Carroll at a 1996 department store and did not know her and has said he plans to appeal the verdict.
Trump skipped attending the trial and did not testify in his own defense during the proceedings, with jurors instead being shown video from a pretrial deposition, making Wednesday the first time he’s had to face a public questioning in the case.
Trump, when asked by moderator Kaitlan Collins about the verdict, said his poll numbers went up and repeated his statements that he didn’t know Carroll, though at least one photograph has surfaced of them together.
“I don’t know her. I never met her. I had no idea who she is.” He dismissed a question about Collins about whether it would impact his standing with female voters and in response, he launched into a recounting of Carroll’s claims in a mocking voice, drawing laughs and claps from the live audience. Collins tried to interrupt but Trump continued and called it “a fake story” and referred to Carroll as “a wack job.”
REPEATING ELECTION LIES
Trump, with his first question from Collins about why he should be elected again, started almost immediately by repeating his lies about the 2020 presential election and repeating his unfounded claims of election fraud.
Striking a more muted tone than he usually uses on stage before his cheering supporters, Trump called it a “rigged election” and a “shame” before Collins cut him off, correcting his statements and asking him to publicly acknowledge his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump did not, immediately returning to his claims. As Collins continued to try to fact check Trump, he interrupted again, calling for honest elections and then pivoting to other subjects like immigration.
DEFENSE OF JAN. 6 INSURRECTION
Trump, after shunning tough questioning for years, returned to a mainstream network for the first time since spreading lies about his 2020 election loss that spurred deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Collins asked Trump if he regretted his actions on Jan. 6, and the former president quickly began praising the size of the crowd he spoke to that day before some began marching on the Capitol and said the attendees believed the election was “rigged.”
“They were there proud. They were there with love in their heart. That was unbelievable and it was a beautiful day,” Trump said.
Collins pressed Trump on why he didn’t ask his supporters to leave the Capitol or send help to disperse the protesters, and he deflected, trying to cast blame on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He at one point pulled out printed copies of his Twitter posts that day in which he finally, hours after the attack on the Capitol began, asked his supporters to leave the Capitol.
FALSE ABORTION CLAIMS
Trump, responding to a question about the U.S. Supreme Court overturning abortion rights last year, took credit for appointing three of the justices who joined in the majority ruling, saying “it was such a great victory and people are starting to understand it now.”
He repeatedly falsely claimed that abortion rights supporters wanted to “kill a baby” in the ninth month of pregnancy or even after a birth. The claim is based on a misleading interpretation of a Senate vote. Trump also dodged questions about whether, if elected president again, he would sign a national abortion ban. Trump instead spoke about the court ruling as having given anti-abortion activists “negotiating ability.”
“What I will do is negotiate so people are happy,” he said, when asked if he would sign a federal abortion ban. He repeatedly said he would “do what’s right,” without specifying what that was.
NO ANSWERS ON UKRAINE
Trump repeated his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him “a smart guy,” but said “he made a bad mistake” to invade Ukraine. Trump claimed, without evidence or explanation, that Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still president. He said he had “a great relationship” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referencing his 2019 impeachment after pressuring Zelenskyy for “a favor” while withholding military aid.
Trump wouldn’t answer a question about whether he’d continue to send U.S. aid to Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and wouldn’t answer a question about who he wanted to win the war, only saying: “I want everybody to stop dying.”
KEEPING CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
Trump defended his keeping of top secret and confidential government documents at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, which is now the subject of a Justice Department probe.
“I had every right to do it. I didn’t make a secret of it,” Trump said.
Trump gave a vague answer when Collins asked if he ever showed the classified documents to anyone.
“Not really. I would have the right to,” the former president said.
“What do you mean ‘Not really?’” Collins asked.
“Not that I can think of,” Trump said.
Trump noted that other presidents and vice presidents had kept documents after leaving but didn’t mention that he refused to turn over documents even after receiving a subpoena.
SPARRING WITH COLLINS
Early on in the town hall, Collins gave Trump more leeway to respond to questions, allowing the president to steamroll through his answers and jump from topic to topic, sprinkling in false claims as she sometimes tried to interrupt. As the town hall went on and Collins jumped in earlier and more often to correct him or get him back on track, Trump got frustrated.
At one point, he repeated an insult he hurled at Hillary Clinton during their 2016 presidential debate, calling Collins “nasty.”
In a back and forth about the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump and Collins were talking over each other and Trump at one point declared: “You’re so wrong. You don’t know the subject.”
“I do know the subject,” she retorted.
The audience, made up of Republicans and independents, was largely favorable to Trump and laughed and cheered as he made his points.
“I like you guys,” Trump told the crowd at the end.
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