During a tense talk with voters hosted by the cable network CNN on Wednesday night, former President of the United States of America (US) Donald Trump persistently repeated his lies about the 2020 election, downplayed the violence on January 6 and repeatedly insulted a woman who got pregnant this Sunday the civil court case against him, in which she accused him of sexual abuse and defamation, she reports Voice of America.
Returning to CNN after years of hostility toward the network, Trump also declined to answer whether he wants Ukraine to win the war against Russian aggression, and said America "could" default on its debts, despite the potentially dire economic consequences. .
The live-televised rally, held in New Hampshire, a state with one of the first votes of the US election cycle, showed how difficult it is to correct Trump's false claims with real-time facts. The former president received applause and support from an audience of Republicans and undecided voters, and the moderator, Caitlin Collins, was at times at a loss for words.
Trump, who at one point called Collins a "terrible, unpleasant person," continued to insist the 2020 election was "rigged," even though state and federal election officials, members of his own campaign staff and White House aides houses, as well as numerous courts concluded that there is no evidence for his claims.
Trump also defended his delayed response to the events of January 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop President Joseph Biden's election victory.
Trump, who has pulled his printed Twitter posts from that day — instead criticized the black police officer who killed rioter Ashley Babbitt and said he was willing to pardon "a large portion" of people convicted of participating in the violence. More than 670 people have already been convicted of various crimes related to the events of January 6.
Trump, who is the undisputed favorite in the race for the Republican nomination, also rejected the idea that he should apologize to his former vice president, Mike Pence, who some of the mob has been trying to find in Congress after Trump falsely claimed that Pence had the power to revoke election results.
"I didn't think he was in any danger," the former president said.
In fact, Trump added, it was Pence who "did something bad."
The prime-time forum, the first major TV event of the 2024 presidential campaign and Trump's first interview appearance on CNN since he was elected president in 2016, drew skepticism from both sides of the political spectrum when it was announced.
Democrats have questioned whether a man who continues to spread lies about the 2020 election he lost — lies that led to chaos in the Capitol — should be given a prime-time platform. Conservatives wondered why Trump would appear, and potentially boost the ratings of the network he has continuously criticized and disparaged.
The controversy intensified further when a jury in New York concluded that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed columnist I. Jean Carroll, although it rejected her claim that he raped her nearly three decades ago. The jury awarded her five million dollars in damages.
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On Wednesday, Trump called the whole case "fake news," claimed he didn't know Carroll, but also attacked on a very personal basis. "She's crazy," he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
A small group of anti-Trump protesters gathered at the event's venue, Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. They carried banners with the messages "No one is above the law" and "Elections, not rebellion."
At the rally itself, Trump also refused to answer a series of specific questions, such as whether he would sign a federal ban on abortion. Collins asked him that question several times, but he answered only that he would "negotiate", so that "people would be satisfied".
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