CNN is taking heat for its town hall event with former President Donald Trump.
Roughly 20 minutes into the program, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted, “CNN should be ashamed of themselves. 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,” she added.
CNN should be ashamed of themselves.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2023
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.
At the beginning of the event, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted he had not publicly acknowledged that he lost the 2020 election.
She asked, “Why should Americans put you back in the White House?”
“I think that when you look at that result and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happens,” Trump responded.
He added, “That was a rigged election and it’s a shame that we had to go through it. It’s very bad for our country, all over the world they looked at it and they saw exactly what everyone else saw.”
Former President Trump on the 2020 Election:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 11, 2023
"When you look at that result, and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you're a very stupid person, you see what happened… That was a rigged election." pic.twitter.com/TkkMMrTubI
Despite several recounts and legal challenges, there has been no evidence that widespread fraud altered the results of the 2020 election.
Trump was also asked how he would respond to people who say the verdict in author E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape trial disqualifies him from being president.
The audience laughed as Trump made a face in response to her question.
“Well, there aren’t too many of them because my poll numbers just came out — they went up,” he said, drawing laughs from the audience.
CNN asks Trump what he'd say to voters who say the E. Jean Carroll verdict will disqualify him from being president:
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 11, 2023
"Well there aren't too many of them because my poll numbers just came out—they went up." pic.twitter.com/ss7pTj8ZVN
On Tuesday, it was revealed the jury found Trump liable for defamation and battery. However, the jury did not find that Trump raped Carroll.
During the town hall, Trump repeated his assertion he does not know Carroll and never met her.
He went on to attack her character, which also drew laughs from the audience.