A CNN town hall Wednesday evening with former President Donald Trump drew mixed reviews from media and political watchers locally and across the nation.
The roughly 70-minute event — held in early-voting New Hampshire — questioned Trump about his views on the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack and his response to a civil jury’s finding that he was liable for sexually abusing and defaming advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Trump is also facing investigations in Georgia and Washington over alleged interference in his 2020 loss and his handling of classified documents and potential obstruction of justice charges.
Trump has had a complicated relationship with CNN. He has called the news network “fake news” and criticized them as liberal, and he has quarreled with Kaitlan Collins, a CNN reporter and the town hall’s moderator. When repeatedly pressed by Collins during Wednesday’s live event about classified documents Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago, Trump called her “a nasty person.”
Despite the tumultuous relationship with CNN, Trump’s team reportedly saw the town hall invitation as a chance to connect with voters who typically seek out conservative news sources. Views of Trump remain sharply divided as he seeks a second term.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a controversial figure herself, described Trump’s appearance at the town hall as a show of pride for the country.
“He is truly showing everyone why he is the president America needs. He is doing a town hall with CNN, who has attacked him more than anyone,” Green posted of Twitter. “President Trump loves this country and is showing he’s willing to fight for it.”
Furious. That’s how Mary Trump, host of the podcast “The Mary Trump Show” and the former president’s niece, said she felt by the end of the broadcast. For her, the event seemed more like a rally than a town hall as an audience of Republican and unaffiliated voters applauded Donald Trump.
“But Donald Trump cannot destroy our country by himself. That requires allies,” she wrote. “He already has the Republican party in his pocket. And now, he has CNN on his side.”
On Tuesday, jurors in New York found that Trump had sexually abused and defamed Carroll, but did not find him guilty of rape. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump said he plans to appeal.
Mary Trump said Carroll’s victory “was a boon to the rule of law.”
The live event highlighted the importance and challenges of fact-checking in real time.
Trump started off the night claiming that millions of votes were stolen in the 2020 election. To counter his argument, Collins pointed to statements by Trump’s own officials who noted that the election was conducted justly.
“The election was not rigged, Mr. President,” Collins said. “You can’t keep saying that all night long.”
In regard to the January insurrection, Trump blamed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others for security failures. He also claimed that he asked the National Guard to intervene during the attack and would pardon “a large portion” of the rioters.
Collins sometimes appeared to struggle to fact-check Trump’s misstatements during the contentious back-and-forth. Despite this, independent investigative journalist Brian Krassenstein said Collins did “an incredible job” keeping up.
“She is calling him out at every single chance that she gets when he says something that is not accurate,” he added.
Some criticized CNN for providing Trump a platform to speak, but Krassenstein said the town hall was an opportunity to hold him accountable.
Not everyone agreed.
“All ethics of journalism broken, won’t allow Trump to talk,” Simon Ateba, the chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa, wrote.
Ateba said that even if Collins or CNN may not agree with Trump, they should to allow him get his point across before asking further questions or cutting him off in order to check his statements.
The forum was the first major television event of the 2024 presidential campaign. It was also Trump’s first interview appearance on CNN since before he was elected in 2016 and it drew suspicion from both Republicans and Democrats upon its announcement.
Democrats questioned whether a man who continues to claim he unfairly lost the 2020 elections and has been blamed for sparking the January Capitol attack should be given a platform to speak. Republicans wondered why Trump would appear on CNN when he has continually discredited their content.
— The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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