Former President Donald Trump left nothing untouched as he made his return to CNN for a town hall on Wednesday night.
The former president and current GOP front-runner for the 2024 election spoke with moderator Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.
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Trump had the audience, largely made up of friendly independents and Republicans, laughing and applauding his comments on everything from his recent legal scandals to the debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Here are four takeaways from Trump's CNN town hall.
Trump isn't hiding from legal troubles
The former president is facing a slew of legal scandals, with the effect on his reelection campaign yet to be seen.
He appeared at the town hall one day after he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the case brought by E. Jean Caroll, a former Elle magazine writer who accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s. He is the first president in United States history to be found liable for sexual assault.
Trump spent a good portion of his town hall appearance once again denying that he knew Carroll, calling the case a method of "election interference" to prevent him from winning the presidency in 2024.
“What’s happening is they are doing this for election interference,” Trump said of the trial’s verdict. “This woman, I don’t know her, I never met her, I have no idea who she is.”
“This is a fake story, a made-up story,” Trump continued, adding that it “wouldn’t have made a difference” if he had appeared at the trial to testify.
Trump is also facing unprecedented criminal charges of falsifying business records to bury hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump pointing to 2020 as his starting point for 2024
Trump continued his trademark barrage against the 2020 election, speaking over Collins and ignoring her comments when she asked him to admit that he lost the election almost four years ago.
"We did fantastically," he said of his administration and the 2020 election. "When you look at that result, and you look at what happened during that election, unless you're a very stupid person, you see what happened."
"It was a rigged election, and it's a shame we had to go through that. It's very bad for our country," Trump continued.
He also called the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, an "unbelievable" and "beautiful" day. However, Trump did acknowledge that he would focus on the future and use the 2020 election to fuel a win in 2024.
“We’re at a point now we’re getting so close — let’s just win it again and straighten out our country,” Trump said.
Trump continues his attack on media
During his presidency, Trump frequently referred to CNN as a "fake news" network and never granted interviews to any of its journalists, which is why many were surprised at CNN's announcement that he would appear at a town hall.
Throughout the town hall, Collins gave him a lot of leeway to voice his opinions before trying to correct him or add context after he was done speaking. Trump appeared to be fine with these back-and-forth interactions before growing increasingly frustrated.
At one point, he called Collins "nasty," an insult he hurled repeatedly at Hillary Clinton during their 2016 presidential debate.
When discussing the classified documents discovered at Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, Trump and Collins spoke over each other. At one point, Trump said, "You’re so wrong. You don’t know the subject.”
Collins responded, "I do know the subject."
Trump takes small jabs at Biden and DeSantis
Trump discussed other hot-button topics, including abortion, the debt ceiling, and the war in Ukraine. He mostly kept his distance from attacking Biden or any of his GOP contenders, with only a few small swipes at his rivals.
The former president condemned the Biden administration for the state of the economy.
"You look at the taxes, you look at inflation, what's happened to inflation, it's just destroying our country," Trump said. "We have really become, in many ways, a Third World country. And it's very sad what's happened in this administration. And it's something that we will turn around on day one.
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The former president also boasted during the town hall that he was leading "by a lot" in polls against Biden and "DeSanctimonious," his nickname for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who has not announced a bid for the presidency.
DeSantis should "relax and take it easy and think about the future, because right now his future isn't looking so good," Trump said to Collins.