CNN Town Hall with Trump

[hislegacy]

CNN Trump Town Hall Blows Up in Its Face as AOC Turns on Network: 'Should Be Ashamed'​

CNN Trump Town Hall Blows Up in Its Face as AOC Turns on Network: 'Should Be Ashamed'

Far-left congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was displeased after an attempt to corner Trump had failed and so she turned on CNN.

www.westernjournal.com

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CNN Trump Town Hall Blows Up in Its Face as AOC Turns on Network: 'Should Be Ashamed'​

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By Johnathan Jones May 10, 2023 at 6:50pm​

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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was among a number of prominent leftists who turned on CNN in the middle of its Wednesday town hall event in New Hampshire, which featured former President Donald Trump with a live audience.​

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Trump was grilled by network host Kailtan Collins about everything from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol incursion to his civil case against E. Jean Carroll — a woman who claimed Trump raped her in the 1990s at a New York City department store:​

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The former president was prepared for Collins’ line of questions and defended himself in a manner many who watched it found was more than adequate.​

 

[hislegacy]

Former President Donald Trump said he would encourage American energy independence when he was asked during his CNN town hall event on Wednesday how he would jumpstart the country’s economy.

 

[wing2000]

Transcript

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/politics/transcript-cnn-town-hall-trump/index.html

...it's painful to read.

Former President Donald Trump said he would encourage American energy independence when he was asked during his CNN town hall event on Wednesday how he would jumpstart the country’s economy.

Would? ...his answers are all in the past tense.

REGER [audience participant] : My question is regarding the economy.

Over the past two years, we have seen the prices for everything skyrocket, from food to gas to utilities and insurance costs. Many peoples’ bills are up several hundred dollars a month, including mine.

If elected president, again, what is the first thing you would do to help bring down the cost to make things more affordable?

TRUMP: Drill, baby, drill.

TRUMP: Well, we were energy independent. We were soon going to be energy dominant.

And nobody had ever done what I did. We got oil down to $1.87. Actually, it fell lower than that in some cases. We’d have to save the oil companies – the price was getting.

So, we were doing incredibly. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country, probably the greatest economy in the history of the world.

We’re energy independent, soon to be energy dominant. We were going to be bigger than Russia and Saudi Arabia put together times two. We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other nation – any other nation.

And these stupid fools ended it. And energy went from $1.87 and even lower for gasoline, for a car. They went from $1.87 to $5, $6, $7, $8 and even $9, and your electricity bills went through the roof. Your heating bills went through the roof.

And that’s what started inflation. And it hasn’t stopped because people are paying now for bacon and for eggs and for the – two and three times what it was just a little while ago.

We created the greatest economy in history. A big part of that economy was I get – I got you the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country, bigger than the Reagan cuts, bigger than any –

TRUMP: And also, Kaitlan, also, as you know, we got the biggest regulation and regulatory cuts.

We – this place was rocking, and then we were given a gift from China. And China paid a big price. And let me tell you something, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes from China.

But prior to COVID coming in – and then I rebuilt the economy again a second time. But we had prior to COVID coming in as – from China, from Wuhan, which I said it came from Wuhan, and everybody said, oh, you’re wrong about that. You’re wrong. It came from Wuhan. I said it right from day one.

So we had the greatest economy in the world, is historic. They made energy so high, and energy is all invasive. It is massive as an industry and as a cost. It lifted everything.

 

[MotoToTheMax]

Considering CNN's new CEO, I think the town hall went as expected. I can see Chris Licht turning it into a Fox Light of sorts in the next year or two.

As usual, Trump was who he is. Just awful.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I think Democrats (like AOC) are missing the mark by suggesting that "it's bad that CNN platformed Trump".

There were some better takes on the matter (by members of non-mainstream media) from both sides of the political spectrum

Cenk from The Young Turks (left-leaning) said (paraphrasing): "AOC was off base with this approach, do you really think you're going to stop the other side's front-runner and a former president from finding a platform? Claiming that the goal should be to stop people from hearing from Trump projects weakness and implies that 'our side is weak and our ideas can't stand on their own so we need to find a way to silence the other side' we should be combatting bad speech with good speech"

Specific quote from him:
"you do a Republican town hall with a Republican crowd. Yes, that makes it feel like home turf for Trump - but that's because it is! If it makes you uncomfortable they love Trump, ok, but it doesn't make that fact any less true. Ignoring things doesn't make them go away."

Ben Shapiro from The DailyWire (right-leaning) said (paraphrasing): "If the goal of CNN was to try to undermine Trump, their strategy was terrible, getting a clearly left-bias interviewer to ask him questions about the things democrats care about, in a room full of conservatives and independents who aren't as fixated on those things, is creating the kind of environment he thrives in where he gets to bulldoze a democrat in a room full of non-democrats. A better approach (if the goal was to make him look bad) would've been to ask him specifically about policies that conservatives and independents care about like, say, Fauci and covid; criminal justice reform and Alice Johnson and crime; or things he didn't deliver on like the border wall and illegal immigration policy, and why he supports red flag laws, Etc,”

Specific quote from him:
“Ridiculous failure by CNN on all fronts — unless, of course, their goal is to renominate Trump for the ratings and because they think he’s most beatable (NOTE: this, by the way, is precisely their goal),”