Former President Donald Trump refused to acknowledge he lost the 2020 presidential election, refused to admit any regret for actions that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, refused to apologize to Vice President Mike Pence in the wake of the riot, and took no responsibility for being found liable of sexual assault and defamation during a high-stakes CNN town hall event on Wednesday night.
"Most people understand what happened — that was a rigged election. And it's a shame that we had to go through it," Trump told CNN This Morning anchor Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, a crucial early voting state.
TRUMP REFUSES TO ADMIT TO REFUSES TO ADMIT 2020 ELECTION
Trump didn't stop there. He also expressed no regrets over his phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2020, pressuring him to find votes in the Peach State to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which led to a special grand jury investigation. "Yeah, I called questioning the election. I thought it was a rigged election. I thought it had a lot of problems," Trump said. "And if this call was bad, why didn't him and his lawyers hang up?"
When Collins asked about whether he would apologize to Pence over the Capitol riot, Trump was emphatic: "No."
"Because he did something wrong. He should have put the votes back to the state legislatures, and I think we would have had a different outcome. I really did," Trump continued. Pence, as then-president of the Senate, refused Trump's overtures to reject President Joe Biden's win and not certify the results. It led to a public falling out between the two men.
Trump once again appeared on the network after shunning the network in the wake of the 2016 presidential elections and clashing with Collins when she covered the Trump administration. The town hall is also notable given Trump's suggestion he would skip a Republican primary debate with Fox News over the summer, leading to some criticism from Republicans. Former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, a potential 2024 candidate, mocked Trump for potentially skipping a debate with Facebook ads before the event on Wednesday. "This is the one question Trump DOES NOT want you to ask him. 'Why are you afraid of the debate stage?'" read one of the ads.
In more current news, Trump also suggested that the United States defaulting on its bills would not be as catastrophic as experts have predicted. "It's really psychological more than anything else. And it could be very bad; it could be maybe nothing. Maybe you have a bad week or a bad day," Trump said.
Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) have been in a public disagreement over raising the debt limit as the nation approaches the "X-date" on June 1, when the U.S. could default on paying its bills.
Chief among the topics Trump was pressured on was Tuesday's blockbuster New York ruling that Trump was liable for sexual assault and defamation of author E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial and ordered to pay $5 million in damages. Trump wasted little time in affirming he would appeal the verdict.
Trump spent time declaring he didn't know who Carroll was and bragged about his poll numbers. "This woman, I don't know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is," Trump said about Carroll. The former president also said he didn't think the verdict would dissuade women from voting for him.
Fellow GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy came to his rival's defense but noted it would be "easier" if Trump weren't a 2024 candidate.
"Based on the sheer timing of the allegations — that the alleged offense occurred in the mid-1990s and Ms. Carroll did not sue until 2019-2022, far beyond the normal statute of limitations for the underlying offense, and in the middle of spate of other legal charges against Trump for other ancient allegations — this seems like just another par of the establishment's anaphylactic response against its chief political allergen: Donald Trump," Ramaswamy said in a statement.
Republican senators, however, were more divided in their reactions to the verdict. "I’m not supporting Trump. I’m looking at other candidates," said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), while chief Trump supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he thinks the “New York legal system is off the rails when it comes to Donald Trump."
The town hall encompassed various topics ranging from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade to the southern border and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republican and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the GOP primary peppered Trump with questions about these topics throughout the town hall.
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Trump, though, refused to say he would sign a federal ban on abortion despite repeated questioning from Collins and refused to say he wanted Ukraine to defeat Russia or that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "war criminal."
Although Trump faced a friendly audience that at times broke into applause over a comment from Trump, Collins frequently clarified that some Trump statements were not true. At one point, a frustrated Trump said to Collins, "You are a nasty person." The audience cheered him on.