Contributing pundit Ken Zino comments on last week’s CNN Town Hall with lead Republican candidate for president in 2024, Donald J. Trump in “A Starving Rat Emerges from His Overfilled Swamp.”

What do you think? Should CNN have even invited the ex-president who still insists he won the 2020 election, to air his familiar grievances and pitch his MAGA positions before an adoring, credulous New Hampshire audience?

Hit the Comment section below, or in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email comments to editors@thehustings.news.

Also up for discussion, from the center column:

•The Consumer Price Index was up 4.9% in April, still too high for the Federal Reserve, but reflecting a slow, continuing improvement over last year. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported a week earlier that the U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, higher than most economists had predicted. This comes after the Fed indicated its latest quarter-point interest rate hike might be its last for a while. All these high numbers could become fond memories of our economy if Congress fails to pass a debt ceiling increase in coming weeks.

•Rep. George Santos (R-NY) pleaded not guilty last week to federal fraud charges. The judge in the case set bail at $500,000 and confiscated his passport. Santos will be able to cast House votes, though he will not hold any committee memberships. He plans to run for re-election in 2024.

•A Manhattan court awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million in her sexual abuse and defamation case against Donald J. Trump, who of course, will appeal.