This week, former President Donald Trump participated in a televised town hall hosted by CNN. His participation in the public forum comes as he puts all his focus on a potential 2024 general election rematch with Democrat Joe Biden. While speaking to a crowd mostly full of Republicans, Trump was asked about many things like his election claims, treatment towards women, the state of the country, and more.
Speaking on the topic of debt, Trump suggested that Democrats should agree to “massive” spending cuts to avoid “catastrophic” repercussions for the global economy. While switching gears to talk about his 2020 presidential election loss, Trump refused to accept that he had been defeated by President Biden.
“Unless you are a very stupid person you see what happens…most people understand what happened, it was a rigged election and it was a shame we had to go through it,” he told host Collins. Trump then cited claims by “True the Vote”, a conservative vote monitoring organization that claimed they had “found millions of votes on government cameras where they were stuffing ballot boxes, it is a sad thing for our country and for the world.” However, she hit back saying, “There is no evidence of that.”
The town hall came less than 36 hours after a jury in New York found that Trump sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, who initially accused him of raping her in the 1990s and of defaming her after she made public allegations in 2019. While the jury did not find enough evidence to validate her rape claim, she was awarded $5 million in damages stemming from sexual battery and defamation.
During the town hall, Trump was pressed on the infamous “grab them by the p****” tape that came up during E. Jean Carroll’s rape and defamation trial.
Moderator Kaitlan Collins asked him, “There was a taped deposition of you from October, and you defended the comments you made on that ‘Access Hollywood’ tape about being able to grab women how you want. Do you stand by those comments?” Trump stood by his comments completely while trying to clarify what he actually meant…
“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.” He added, “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.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper appeared to be appalled at what he watched during the town hall. He said, “It was certainly disturbing to hear that audience — young and old, our fellow citizens, people who love their kids and go to church — laugh and applaud his lies and his continued defamation of a woman who, according to a jury of his peers, he sexually abused and defamed,” Cooper said.
Speaking to viewers, Cooper continued: “The audience that upset you… That’s a sampling of about half the country. They are your family members, your neighbors and they are voting, and many said they’re voting for him.”
“That man you were so upset to hear from last night, he may be president of the United States in less than two years. It can happen again, it is happening again. He hasn’t changed and he is running hard,” Cooper said. He went on to tell viewers that they “have the power to do something about it.”
“You can actually get involved. You can make a difference, whatever side of the aisle you’re on,” Cooper said in an attempt to get Americans to get out and vote.
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