[ Neither CNN nor its host was able to take control as the
ex-president played steamroller, to the audience’s delight. It began
and ended in a way that absolutely everyone could have predicted.]
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TRUMP’S CNN TOWN HALL WAS A MESS OF LIES – AND IT WAS UTTERLY
PREDICTABLE
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Adam Gabbatt
May 10, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Neither CNN nor its host was able to take control as the
ex-president played steamroller, to the audience’s delight. It began
and ended in a way that absolutely everyone could have predicted. _
Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association Convention last
month. He spent the CNN town hall launching a series of nonsense
claims., AP photo // The Guardian
Appearing at a CNN town hall, Donald Trump
[[link removed]] immediately
launched into a series of debunked, nonsense claims about election
fraud, speaking nearly nonstop for more than five minutes.
Trump steamrolled over attempted interruptions from Kaitlan Collins,
the CNN interviewer, as the town hall immediately turned into
what many had feared
[[link removed]]:
an opportunity for Trump to lie about dozens of topics, almost
completely unfettered, across 60 minutes of prime-time television.
From 8pm to just after 9pm, there was never a moment when CNN
[[link removed]] or Collins had any semblance
of control. Trump lied about election fraud and about the January 6
insurrection. He obfuscated on trade tariffs and the aims of abortion
advocates, and claimed, wrongly, that he had “finished” the wall.
At one particularly revolting point, Trump mocked E Jean Carroll, the
columnist whom a New York jury found
[[link removed]] he
sexually assaulted in a department store.
“CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
the New York congresswoman, tweeted
[[link removed]] 20 minutes into
the debacle.
“They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be
manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan
6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim.
“The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”
According to
[[link removed]] CNN,
the audience in Manchester, New Hampshire, was made up of “New
Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters”, but in reality the
crowd might as well have been scooped up from a Trump campaign rally.
They laughed, whooped and applauded as Trump dished out a stream of
his greatest hits.
Whoever had vetted the crowd must have winced as a series of people
– almost all white, mostly male – stood up to lob softball
questions at the former president about immigration, the economy,
about how “state governments and the federal government are going to
act to repress gun rights” and whether he would pardon the hundreds
of people convicted of crimes on January 6.
Thrust by CNN into Trump’s signature cascade of nonsense, Collins
was repeatedly overrun.
In the face of so many lies, it seemed difficult for Collins to know
which one to fact-check, and Trump was allowed to present his
alternative version of the universe, including on the aims of people
attempting to protect a woman’s right to abortion.
“‘You could kill the baby at 9 months or after it was born,’”
Clara Jeffery, the editor of Mother Jones magazine, tweeted
[[link removed]], quoting
a false claim by Trump that Democrats wanted abortion to be legal up
until, and apparently after, birth.
“Goes unchallenged. This [is] a journalistic abomination.”
The decision to give a platform to Trump, a man who has something of a
track record for lying, was widely criticized before the event. Angelo
Carusone, chief executive of Media Matters for America, a progressive
watchdog, described the town hall as a “transparent attempt to goose
their ratings”, while Keith Olbermann, a former MSNBC host,
criticized Chris Licht, who took over from Jeff Zucker as chief
executive of CNN in 2022.
“I think we can say Chris Licht’s conversion of CNN into a
political and journalistic whorehouse is complete,” Olbermann had
said.
The looming town hall had led to an incongruous viewing experience
throughout Wednesday, particularly in light of a legal finding
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Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996.
On Wednesday morning, Carroll, who the New York jury found was
sexually abused in a New York department store changing room 27 years
ago, was interviewed by CNN.
The network aired clips of the interview throughout the day, with a
chyron hovering over the footage promoting Trump’s town hall
appearance.
On Tuesday, CNN had run a story about Liz Cheney, a former Republican
congresswoman and critic of Trump.
“New Liz Cheney ad: Trump ‘A risk America can never take
again,’” read the CNN chyron. Right there, on the corner of the
screen, was a promotion for the Trump town hall.
There had been clues, too, about the direction of the town hall in the
hour before it began. In handing airtime to Trump, CNN apparently felt
it had to host some of the former president’s acolytes, perhaps in
the interest of balance.
That led to Wolf Blitzer, a CNN veteran, bringing on JD Vance, a
Republican senator from Ohio who has dabbled
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the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
Asked what Trump needed to do to win undecided voters, Vance said,
with a straight face: “Trump has the ability to appeal across the
aisles.”
Blitzer then turned the discussion to Trump having been found
[[link removed]] to
have sexually abused Carroll. It gave Vance an on-air opportunity to
attack the case as a “he said-she said situation” that has
“nothing to do with the future of this country”.
“So ahead of Trump’s appearance on CNN, we get to watch JD Vance
– a man who has pushed conspiracy theories and the white supremacist
‘Great Replacement’ – come on live and do a friendly, pre-game
chat,” said Mehdi Hasan
[[link removed]], who
hosts a show on MSNBC.
“The normalization of extremism and conspiracism continues.”
As the town hall dwindled to a close on Wednesday, things didn’t get
any better. At one point, Trump called Collins
[[link removed]] a “nasty
woman” as she attempted to ask Trump a question. The audience
laughed.
Trump also referenced Washington’s Chinatown – “where they
don’t even speak English” – and brought up “impeachment hoax
No 1”, to cheers from the crowd.
Behind the scenes, CNN staff were apparently horrified. Justin
Baragona, a media reporter for the Daily Beast, tweeted
[[link removed]]:
“Immediate reaction from a CNN on-air personality to me just now on
this Trump town hall: ‘It is so bad. I was cautiously optimistic
despite the criticism. It is awful. It’s a Trump infomercial.
We’re going to get crushed.’”
When the town hall ended and the camera cut to the CNN studio, the
panel of pundits seemed dumbstruck.
“We don’t have enough time to fact-check every lie he told,”
said Jake Tapper, a senior CNN host.
“I want to be very clear: what we saw tonight was outrageous,”
said Laura Coates, a legal analyst.
The CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel might have put it best.
“People are appalled by what they saw tonight,” she said.
It was hard to disagree.
_[ADAM GABBATT is a writer and presenter for Guardian US, based in New
York. Click here
[[link removed]] for Adam's
public key. Twitter @adamgabbatt [[link removed]]]_
* Donald Trump
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* CNN
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* 2024 Elections
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* Sex Offender
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* Fascism
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* election fraud
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* MAGA
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* GOP
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* Republican Party
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* Right-wing agenda
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* E. Jean Carroll
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* war on women
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* Jan. 06
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* Capitol coup
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* Proud Boys
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