By Todd Lassa
If not for CNN “nasty person” Kaitlin Collins’ assiduous calling out of the former president’s lies, big and small, Donald J. Trump’s Manchester, New Hampshire Town Hall appearance on one of the not-Fox News cable channels Wednesday would much resemble one of his rallies, replete with adoring fans, this time held indoors.
“We’ve become in many ways a third-world country,” Trump said. He recited such falsities as recordings of “millions of votes” illegally cast, “People going into 28 different voting booths, voting seven times…”
He blamed the January 6th Capitol insurrection on “crazy” Nancy Pelosi and on Washington, D.C’s unnamed mayor (it’s Muriel Bowser). When Collins noted that more than 140 police officers were injured at the riot, Trump parried with “And Ashli Babbitt was killed.”
Trump claimed that when he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to ask him to “find” 11,780 votes, the then-lame duck president was simply asking for votes he felt he had deserved – he ignored Collins’ objection that there is a real recording of the call that tells a very different story.
Asked by a supporter (this was a Town Hall, after all) whether Trump would pardon the many convicted for crimes, including seditious conspiracy, in the January 6th insurrection, the former president said; “I’m inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say all of them because they got out of control.”
“Many people” were killed in Black Lives Matter protests, Trump said, once again trying to obfuscate the issue.
On a New York (where Trump can’t get a “fair trial”) jury that found for E. Jean Carroll in her defamation suit, he said he had never met her, and that he took a picture with her and her husband once. “She’s a wack-job.”
Asked how he would “fix” the so-called economic mess of the Biden administration, Trump’s solution is Palinesque; “Drill baby, drill.”
Trump says he will have Russia’s war against Ukraine “settled within 24 hours” by relying, apparently, on the Art of Negotiation. He refused to comment on Collins’ question of whether Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.
And so it goes.
We assume Trump agreed to appear on CNN because he thought it might help him gains independent voters for his 2024 presidential bid. What he accomplished was to hear more and more cheers from his adoring, hardcore MAGA supporters. That’s somewhere around 30% of American voters.
Where will Trump find another 21%? Through repeated claims of “voter fraud,” we presume.