Former President Donald Trump unleashed his unabashed self on Wednesday during a CNN town hall in New Hampshire. He was combative in many situations, including when he called the moderator a “nasty person.”
The comment came amid a heated exchange between CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and Trump regarding documents the FBI took from his Mar-a-Lago home in an August raid.
WARNER BROS. CEO DEFENDS 'NEW CNN' FOR HOSTING TRUMP IN TOWN HALL Q&A
When the topic was brought up, Trump mentioned past presidents who took documents with them upon their exit in an apparent attempt to normalize his actions.
Collins attempted to clarify the situation.
“I think it’s important, Mr. President, to actually set the record straight here: They took documents. When they realized they had documents, they turned them back over,” Collins said. “The difference is that you waited to turn yours over. And it was a year and a half effort that included a subpoena.”
“It included a raid on my house,” Trump interjected.
Collins then clarified that the documents mentioned in the subpoena had yet to be turned over to the federal government.
Trump then brought up the actions of past presidents and vice presidents. His comments led to a heated exchange of conflicting accounts from Trump and Collins.
“There is a special counsel investigating your document situation, also Biden’s document situation. When it comes to your documents, did you ever show those classified documents to anyone?” Collins eventually asked Trump.
“Not really,” Trump said in response.
“What do you mean not really?” Collins responded.
“Not that I can think of,” the former president responded before claiming that he would have had the right to do so if he did show the documents to people. Trump went on to say that he was negotiating with the National Archives and Records Administration and called the agency a left-leaning group.
Collins clarified that the National Archives is a bipartisan entity and said it is not an organization that negotiates.
The conversation led to a more heated back-and-forth before Trump ultimately interjected, “Can I talk?”
“Yeah. What’s the answer?” Collins responded. “We’d like you to answer the question. That’s why I asked it.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“It’s very simple to — you’re a nasty person, I tell ya,” Trump responded before finishing answering the question.
“I was negotiating, and we were talking to [the National Archives] ... to bring whatever they want. They can have whatever they want. When we left Washington, we had the boxes lined up on the sidewalk outside for everybody, people taking pictures of them — everybody knew we were taking those boxes,“ Trump said.