Trump Praises ‘Very Smart’ CNN For Giving Him Town Hall: ‘Many Minds Were Changed’
Donald Trump/Truth Social
Former President Donald Trump heaped praise on CNN after the network hosted him for a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday. The network came under fire from Trump critics who said it was irresponsible to platform him because of his past actions and penchant for lying.
Perhaps most famously that would involve lying about the 2020 election being rigged, trying to stay in power after he lost, and ultimately inciting a deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
It was Trump’s first appearance on CNN in years and was the first town hall of his 2024 presidential campaign.
For 70 minutes, he took questions from Republicans, Republican-leaning voters, and moderator Kaitlan Collins who, despite her attempts to fact-check him, got bowled over as part of her thankless if not impossible task.
“People are criticizing CNN for giving me a Forum to tell the TRUTH,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social on Thursday night. “I believe it was a very smart thing that they did, with Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time. It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!”
In a subsequent post, the former president claimed that “many minds were changed” by his responses to questions.
“The Radical Left screamed, ‘Take it down, take it down,’ during the Show, because they saw that I was making so many important points on the Border, Energy Independence, the Afghanistan Catastrophe, Inflation, the Economy, Russia/Ukraine, and so much more,” he continued. “Many minds were changed on Wednesday night by listening to Common Sense, and sheer ‘Brilliance.'”
The town hall notched 3.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched program on cable news yesterday. But as Brian Stelter pointed out, it wasn’t nearly the ratings draw Trump was pulling in during the 2016 campaign.
During the forum, Trump grew impatient with Collins and called her “a nasty person.” Elsewhere, he falsely claimed he never asked Georgia election officials to “find” him the votes he needed to win the state after he lost there in 2020. He also mocked writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape. The day before the town hall, a Manhattan jury awarded her $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused and defamed her. It did not find him liable for rape.
An attorney for Carroll said her client considering suing Trump for defamation again over the comments.
