Trump takes to cable TV to counter-attack, boosting frontrunner status for Republican nomination

WASHINGTON - Just a day after a New York jury

found him liable in a sexual abuse and defamation case

, former US president Donald Trump on Wednesday night struck back at a live CNN town hall seemingly tailored for him, conceding nothing and steamrolling his moderator’s attempts to fact-check him – to repeated applause from a friendly Republican audience. 

It was the first big cable network moment of the 2024 campaign for the White House, and Trump, 76, –

the front runner for the Republican nomination

– dominated it.

The event in New Hampshire, a critical state, drew flak for CNN from liberals; the town hall was a turnaround for the channel that has been a frequent target in Trump’s political campaigns in which he has consistently berated the media as “enemies of the people”.

“Best day Trump has had since January 6. Congratulations to CNN,” tweeted Mr Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group – referring to

the insurrection of Jan 6, 2021

when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of the election result.

“Trump looking like the (Republican) nominee tonight,” he added. “Nobody should be complacent, this man can win a second presidency.”

Trump also mocked his accuser, magazine writer E. Jean Carroll, 79, and maintained her story was fake. She testified during

the civil trial

that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996. He then harmed her reputation by writing in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that her claims were a “complete con job”, “a hoax” and “a lie”.

He maintained that he had won the 2020 election, calling Jan 6, 2021, a “beautiful day” and saying if he were to be elected president again he would pardon many of the jailed rioters.

The former president pressed familiar campaign buttons, flaying the Joe Biden administration’s economic and border policies, and saying if he were president he would stop the war in Ukraine in a day.

He brushed aside or overrode questions on other ongoing investigations against him, over

classified documents found in a Federal Bureau of Investigation raid

at his Florida home, and his call to Georgia’s Secretary of State on Jan 2, 2021, claiming that he had won the state.

At one point he called CNN host Kaitlin Collins, who attempted to correct him, a “nasty person” – drawing loud cheers from the audience.

“Tonight’s town hall performance was vintage Donald Trump: unrepentant, baddest man in town, fluid with the truth, and condescending,” political pollster John Zogby, senior partner at John Zogby Strategies, told The Straits Times.

“He continues to play only to his base and he had plenty of support in the room,” he said.

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted: “CNN… (has) lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defences of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim”.

Congresswoman Liz Cheney, one of only a few Republicans to turn against Trump, tweeted: “No matter how many times Trump lies… the facts won’t change. He is unfit for any office.”

Pundits are divided on whether the performative town hall will move the political needle.

There are still nine months to go before the New Hampshire primary – the first of the primaries in the 2024 campaign, and Trump is still the target of investigations that could produce serious charges that may compromise him as a candidate.

But his base remains loyal, and he remains the front runner for the nomination.

Meanwhile, President Biden’s popularity

remains below par.

The political analytics website FiveThirtyEight in its running aggregation of polls on Wednesday had Mr Biden’s approval rating at a low 42.6 per cent.

An April 28-May 3 ABC/Washington Post poll even found both Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – a potential contender for the Republican nomination – leading President Biden by 7 percentage points. But analysts say that poll is an outlier.

“A more recent poll released today by Yahoo! News has the President leading by two points,” Mr Zogby said.

“We are seeing some very prominent Republican leaders backing away from (Trump) – notably Senators John Cornyn of Texas, John Thune of S. Dakota, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana,” he said. “I suspect that the next round of polling will show him losing ground, especially among independents.”

Still, Wednesday was a big win for the beleaguered former president, who played the role of the maverick outsider to great effect, at one point saying: “In Washington, DC you cannot get a fair trial, just like in New York you cannot get a fair trial.”

Political commentator David Axelrod, a former senior Barack Obama White House official, tweeted: “He (Trump) is still a world-class demagogue, who got elected once, and is well on his way to becoming the (Republican) nominee again.”