Pundits and Democratic lawmakers questioned CNN’s decision to host a town hall with former President Trump on Wednesday night, while Trump’s advisers were reportedly “thrilled” with how it went.
Trump advisors told the New York Times they “can’t believe he is getting an hour on CNN with an audience that cheers his every line and laughs at his every joke.”
At one point during the town hall, Trump mocked E. Jean Carroll, who just yesterday won her battery and defamation lawsuit against the former president. A nine-person jury found him liable for battery and defamation, and ordered the former president to pay Carroll $5 million in combined damages.
Jurors were asked to determine whether there was more than a 50 percent chance that Trump assaulted Carroll in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan in the mid 1990s, as she has claimed. The jury found that Trump most likely sexually assaulted Carroll but rejected the allegation that he raped her. The jury also decided that an October 2022 post from Trump on his Truth Social platform calling her allegations a “hoax” did, in fact, defame Carroll.
On Wednesday, Trump reiterated his assertion that he does not know Carroll and “has no idea who she is.”
He claimed the judge in the case would not allow his lawyers to include evidence about Carroll and said his poll numbers went up after the verdict just as they did after “the other fake charge” brought by a Manhattan district attorney in the hush-money case.
He called Carroll a “wack job” and asked “what kind of a woman meets somebody and .,.within minutes you’re playing hanky panky in a dressing room.”
The crowd laughed as Trump mocked Carroll.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others suggested CNN “should be ashamed of themselves” for giving Trump a platform, which he used to continue to spread lies about the 2020 election being stolen.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
This falls squarely on CNN. Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2023
https://twitter.com/Philip_Germain/status/1656465370717253634?s=20
Others suggested CNN had done a “complete disservice to our democracy” and that the network is “anti-American.”
https://twitter.com/matthewjdowd/status/1656463730463461376?s=20
I'm furious. . . . CNN is anti-American.
In less than an hour, they allowed an authoritarian wannabe to lie constantly while an audience full of his followers applauded. This was not a town hall, it was a rally.
Donald bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade.
He… pic.twitter.com/Q8T3QxfMCL— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) May 11, 2023
Several people questioned the network’s decision to put Kaitlan Collins up against Trump in a room full of Republicans who were largely supportive of the former president. While the crowd was billed as consisting of Republicans and independent voters, t
CNN put their own reporter Kaitlan Collins in a room full of Trump fans and now they are consistently laughing at his jokes and clapping his attack lines – including on her.
Madness.#CNNTownhall
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 11, 2023
Trump calls Kaitlin Collins a "nasty person" after she simply did a follow up. The audience laughed and clapped.
Congrats, Chris Licht and CNN leadership. Bravo. What a way to treat your employees.#CNNTownhall
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) May 11, 2023
The whole effect of the crowd to cheer him and laugh at his jokes is to frame Trump as the tribune of the people.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 11, 2023
The criticism continued:
CNN thinks giving Trump a platform to promote lies is “objectivity” 🫠
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 11, 2023
https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1656376599753760768?s=20
Crap like CNN tonight is how Trump got elected the first time.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 11, 2023
One CNN on-air personality told Daily Beast media reporter Justin Baragona that town hall was “awful.”
“It is so bad,” the on-air personality said. “I was cautiously optimistic despite the criticism. It is awful. It’s a Trump infomercial. We’re going to get crushed.”