Global Courant 2023-05-11 09:13:01
Former US President Donald Trump downplayed the January 6, 2021, violence in Washington DC at a town hall meeting.
During his first televised town hall meeting of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump delved into his lies about rigging the 2020 presidential election, downplayed the January 6, 2021, violence in Washington, D.C., and repeatedly insulted a woman in response to a civil jury’s finding this week that he was liable for sexually assaulting her.
In a controversial 70-minute broadcast on CNN City Hall on Wednesday, Trump drew laughter from a New Hampshire audience when he mocked writer E Jean Carroll’s story that he had sexually assaulted her.
He also repeated falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, said he would pardon many of his supporters convicted of participating in the January 6 Capitol bombing, and called his CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.”
During the controversial back and forth in New Hampshire, where moderator Collins sometimes struggled to fact-check his false statements in real time, Trump continued to insist that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” even though state and federal election officials, his own campaign and White House aides, and numerous courts have rejected his allegations.
Trump also repeatedly downplayed the violence caused by a mob of his supporters storming the Capitol in 2021. Instead, he said he was inclined to pardon “a large portion” of the January 6 defendants if he wins re-election.
“They thought the elections had been manipulated. They were there with love in their hearts. That was incredible, and it was a beautiful day,” he said of the January 6 attack.
He also rejected a suggestion to apologize to his former vice president, Mike Pence, who had been targeted by the mob.
“I don’t feel like he was in any danger,” he said. Trump even said that Pence was the one who “did something wrong”.
Throughout, the audience of Republican and unaffiliated voters cheered him on, laughing and applauding.
Trump and Collins spoke regularly about each other, with Collins disputing some of the former president’s false claims.
The audience of Republicans and independent voters planning to vote in the Republican primary generally strongly supported Trump and gave him a standing ovation when he took the stage.
New Hampshire is an early nominee that could prove pivotal in its bid to return to the White House.
In response to Trump’s comments on Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) said the former president “lied for 20 minutes about the 2020 election” and criticized his characterization of January 6, 2021 as “a beautiful day.”
“This would be disgusting if it weren’t so dangerous,” DNC spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
On Tuesday, a federal jury ruled that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then damaged her reputation by describing her claims as “a hoax” and “a lie.”
“What kind of woman meets someone and brings them up and in minutes you’re playing handkerchief in a locker room?” Trump said, one of many disparaging comments about Carroll that sparked applause and laughter at City Hall.
Following Tuesday’s verdict, Carroll released a statement saying, “Today the world finally knows the truth… This victory is not just for me, but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”
Trump also stood by his comments in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he bragged about grabbing women by their genitals.
“And you would want me to take that back. I can’t take it back because it’s true. I said it’s been like that for a million years, about a million years, maybe a little longer than that,” Trump said.
“I’m not referring to myself – I say people who are famous, people who are stars.”
Trump, who was absent from the two-week trial in New York, was asked by an audience member what he had to say to voters who say it disqualifies him to be president.
“Well, there aren’t that many, because my polls just came out. They went upstairs,” he said.
