Former President Donald Trump was in his element when he took a seat on the stage at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College.
Trump was energetic but stuck to talking points as he fielded questions from a host and a small audience of Granite State Republicans and independents for more than an hour, explaining during a CNN-hosted town hall style forum why he should be given a second shot at taking on President Biden.
“It was a rigged election,” Trump said, opening the forum by refusing to acknowledge his election loss in 2020. “We have a big problem in this country. We have elections that were horrible.”
Trump continued along that line after a voter asked if he would suspend “polarizing” talk of a stolen election, before going on to defend the events at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Trump was ready to talk about that day. He pulled printed notes from his pocket, reading Tweets in which he called for peace as rioters entered the building and while congress attempted to certify the 2020 Election. He said he would pardon a “large portion” of those jailed or facing charges for unlawful activity then.
The former president spent a significant amount of the time sparring with CNN Anchor Kaitlin Collins, who struggled to keep Trump in check while he disagreed with her fact checking. Trump seemed to shine under the scrutiny, making the audience laugh several times with his replies.
“You’re a nasty person,” he told her to applause.
Trump was asked to explain his financial liability in the sexual abuse of author E. Jean Carroll, who on Tuesday was awarded $5 million in damages for an alleged 1996 encounter with the real estate mogul she claims led to her violent rape.
“I never met this woman, I never saw this woman,” he said. “This is a fake story. A made up story.”
Trump pointed out his polling numbers have gone up since then, though the former president was already dominating among his fellow Republicans and has been for months. An ABC/Washington Post poll released Sunday showed Trump with a 24-point lead among Republican leaning registered voters.
The former president responded to a question about how he would fix the economy with “drill, baby, drill.”
“We had the greatest economy in the world,” he said. “We had no inflation, we had the lowest energy prices we’ve had in decades. This country was rocking and rolling.”
Trump said the country should default on its debt, as is possible in a matter of weeks.
“You’re going to default eventually anyway,” he said. “If I win they are going to be doing the same thing to me in two years.”
The 45th President said that the more than 200 mass shootings in the U.S. this year are the result of a “mental health problem” and that people need guns to defend themselves.
Trump responded to a question about how to win over women voters in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned by calling that decision a “great victory.”
“I’m so proud of it, we put three great justices on the Supreme Court,” he said. Trump would not say whether he would sign a national abortion ban.
Ukraine would no longer receive U.S. financial support if he’s re-elected and wouldn’t be at war with Russia if he were still president, Trump said.
“They are taking advantage of us,” he said. “If I’m president I would have that war settled in one day; in 24-hours.”
Trump’s appearance on CNN was his first since before he took the oath of office in 2017. The twice-impeached president, not shy about his feelings regarding the press, never gave a CNN reporter an interview while in the White House and has spent years labeling the network “fake news.”
Despite this, and notwithstanding heavy criticism leveled against the network for giving a national prime time platform to the man many say is ultimately responsible for the insurrection on January 6, the broadcast station has long been a host of presidential candidates for forums and debates.
“CNN has a longstanding tradition of hosting leading presidential candidates for Town Halls and political events as a critical component of the network’s robust campaign coverage,” a CNN spokesperson wrote.
The network maintains it will give the same treatment to all of the major candidates, though Trump is the first of this election cycle.
While there were no identified liberals in the audience asking questions at the Goffstown based college Wednesday, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley was quick to tell voters that the former president’s single term in the White House was not good for residents of the Granite State.
“Granite Staters remember how disastrous his presidency was for New Hampshire,” he said in a written statement. “New Hampshire already rejected Trump’s dangerous agenda twice — and we’ll happily do it again.”