CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins kicked off her network’s town hall event with former President Donald Trump by repeating partisan narratives about the 2020 election. During the heated exchange, Trump reminded Collins that in November 2020 he received more votes than any incumbent presidential candidate in history, and that it has since been proved that the intelligence community and social media platforms worked to throttle the Hunter Biden laptop story shortly before the election.
Collins pushed back, saying, “It was not a rigged election.” She pointed to video evidence of ballot harvesting uncovered by the election integrity group True The Vote. When Trump faced further questioning from Collins attempting to corner him on various issues related to alleged voter fraud, he responded by stating his obligation: "If I saw election fraud, I had an obligation to say it."
The hour-long appearance at CNN's town hall saw former president making multiple false claims about the 2020 elections while refusing to comment on whether he wants Ukraine to successfully drive out Russian forces from its territory. He also praised those who participated in January 6 insurrection as patriots.
Trump cited "True The Vote," a GOP group often criticized for promoting conspiracy theories regarding Democratic election victories being fraudulent. Despite multiple corrections from moderator Kaitlan Collins during their conversation, Mr.Trump claimed they had found millions of illicit votes caught on government cameras.
In response to hosting this controversial town hall event with former President Donald Trump, CNN faced backlash from opponents accusing them of giving him a platform for spreading misinformation and lies. Publications like The Daily Beast and writers such as Sarah Reese Jones from PoliticusUSA criticized CNN for neglecting critical topics like E.Jean Carroll civil trial verdict which found Mr.Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation.
Paul Roland Bois from Breitbart News also shared criticism toward CNN's handling of this event through Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram.
The town hall drew further ire from political figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michael Fanone, who expressed their frustrations with the event. Trump used his platform on CNN to mock E.Jean Carroll, whom he has been ordered to pay $5 million in damages, refused to accept the 2020 election result as legitimate and said he would consider pardoning January 6 rioters.
As the controversial event wrapped up, Trump stated that he would only accept the results of a future 2024 election if they were "honest" and continued refusing to say whether or not he wants Ukraine to win its ongoing war against Russia.