Trump faces questions on sexual abuse case, 2020 election claims at CNN Town Hall

Donald Trump’s first appearance at a CNN event since 2016 was already a high-wire affair then he called the host Kaitlan Collins a ‘nasty person’ | WATCH

Donald Trump, appearing in a live CNN town hall a day after a federal jury in New York found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, blasted the decision, repeated his false claims about the 2020 election and defended his behavior during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by his supporters.

“They’re doing this for election interference,” Mr. Trump said, nodding to his claims of a vast conspiracy to stop his political career. “This woman, I don’t know her, I never met her,” he said of columnist E. Jean Carroll on Wednesday night from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, where the nation’s first Republican primary will be held early next year.

The former president was greeted by applause from the audience of Republican and undeclared, or independent, voters. The audience laughed often, including when he mockingly described the alleged assault. “This is a fake story,” he claimed. “She’s a whack job.” Mr. Trump’s accuser, Ms. Carroll, said earlier Wednesday that she felt vindicated. “I’m overwhelmed,” she said on NBC News’s “Today” show. “Overwhelmed with joy and happiness and delight for the women in this country.”

US magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll departs the Manhattan Federal Court in New York City.

Mr. Trump’s first appearance in a CNN event since 2016, already a high-wire affair, took on greater significance following Tuesday’s civil case verdict, adding to his pile of legal troubles as he tries to maintain dominance over a still growing 2024 GOP presidential primary field.

Mr. Trump sought to keep the focus on President Biden and control the pacing of the event, talking over CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, and pulling from his jacket a paper to make points - particularly about the 2020 election results. She often tried to correct his claims, but Mr. Trump often kept going.

“You’re a nasty person,” he said.

Pressing Mr. Trump to acknowledge he lost to President Biden, Ms. Collins repeatedly told the former president that 2020 was “not a rigged election.” Asked if he should apologize to former Vice President Mike Pence, whom he pressured to help stop Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s win he said, “No because he did something wrong.”

An independent voter asked if he would suspend talk of election fraud. “Yeah, unless I see election fraud,” Mr. Trump said. “I hope that it’s going to be very straight up.” Mr. Trump also said he would be “inclined” to pardon many of the people who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “It will be a large portion of them,” he said to applause. “They are living in hell.”

Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said in a statement that the event showcased a “dangerous, extreme candidate who seeks to undermine democracy and is the frontrunner for the nomination of a party that is increasingly beholden to its most right-wing fringes.”

On abortion, Mr. Trump applauded last year’s Supreme Court ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, saying it provided antiabortion advocates “negotiating” power to change laws. He refused to say whether he would sign a federal abortion ban.

Mr. Trump blamed recent mass shootings on mental-health issues and not the proliferation of guns in America and didn’t identify any new restrictions he would sign. “It’s not the gun that pulls the trigger. It’s the person that pulls the trigger,” he said.

Donald Trump speaks during the CNN, Salem Media Group, The Washington Times Republican Presidential Primary Debate on the campus of the University of Miami in 2016.

Asked about the war between Ukraine and Russia, Mr. Trump said European countries should be giving more financial aid to Ukraine. “They’re a little bit more affected than we are.” He wouldn’t say if he would continue to provide military aid or whether he wanted Ukraine to prevail. He also declined to say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.

“Right now we want to get that war settled,” he said.

The former president declined to apologise for a well-known video that became public in 2016 -- and was a key element of the trial in the Carroll case -- in which Mr. Trump told an “Access Hollywood” host how women let stars grab them by the genitals.

“I said, ‘Women let you,’” Mr. Trump said, as he claimed celebrities are allowed to touch women without their permission. “For a million years, this is the way it’s been.”

The jury award of $US5 million in damages related to an alleged attack from nearly 30 years ago injected new uncertainty into the primary race, testing whether Republican voters and allies will stick with Mr. Trump through another controversy. Just last month, he was indicted on felony charges related to paying hush-money payments to a porn star.

Despite all that, he has been riding a wave of strong poll numbers as most Republicans -- including some who otherwise oppose his third consecutive presidential bid -- rallied around him following the April indictment. Millions of dollars in campaign donations came in.

Some top Republicans have been more circumspect about the Carroll case, and it remains to be seen how it will affect Mr. Trump among voters beyond his most loyal supporters. His appearance on CNN, a network he attacked for years, is part of a strategy to appeal to a broader audience and key swing voters, particularly suburban women. Mr. Biden beat Mr. Trump in 2020 by 19 percentage points among suburban women and by 12 points among all women, according to the AP VoteCast survey.

Before, during and after the town hall, ratings-starved CNN took criticism for the event. The network and some outside defenders said it was justified, given Mr. Trump is the leading Republican presidential candidate.

Mr. Trump used the appearance to discourage an entry into the GOP primary race by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely candidate who has come closest to the former president in early polling. “He ought to just relax and take it easy and think about the future because right now his future’s not looking so good,” Mr. Trump said.

Some campaign strategists have privately said they think Mr. Trump’s growing legal issues, including continuing criminal investigations related to the pressuring of Georgia officials after the 2020 election and the Capitol riot, will eventually begin to shake voter confidence.

Only a few of Mr. Trump’s rivals and potential rivals for the presidential nomination weighed in on the Carroll verdict.

“The jury verdict should be treated with seriousness and is another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump,” said former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is making a long-shot bid centered on the party’s need to move on.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran for president in 2016 and is nearing a decision whether he will again, also criticized Mr. Trump, calling his conduct unacceptable. “This guy, it’s one person after another, one woman after another. The stories just continue to pile up,” Mr. Christie said Wednesday on the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio.

Mr. Pence told NBC News that Americans would make up their own minds, adding that he never saw such behavior from Mr. Trump.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley also avoided taking a clear position on the case. “That’s something for Trump to respond to,” she said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Among the current or expected 2024 GOP candidates who didn’t immediately comment on the Carroll case were Mr. DeSantis, who runs second in polls to Mr. Trump, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Some viewers took to Twitter to voice their criticisms of CNN for hosting the event and giving Mr. Trump a platform before a friendly audience.

“The problem is not Kaitlin Collins,” Amanda Carpenter, a former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted: “The problem is a media establishment and a Republican Party that is dedicated to normalizing a radical and dangerous political figure.” Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News host, said on Twitter that “This is promulgating the cult leadership of Trump -- and people are laughing at sexual assault.”

Isabella Simonetti and Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.

Wall Street Journal