Former President Donald Trump appeared on CNN Wednesday night for a town hall with moderator Kaitlan Collins and an audience of Republican and independent voters.
Trump was... Trump - an unapologetic steamroller who didn't let Collins bully him into admitting that he lost the 2020 election (and called Collins a "nasty person" at one point). Here are the top 10 moments from last night;
Rigged election
"You still have not acknowledged the 2020 election results, but you are also under active federal investigation for trying to overturn the 2020 election results," said Collins. "Your first term ended with a deadly riot at the Capitol, and you still have not publicly acknowledged the 2020 election results. Why should Americans put you back in the White House?"
To which Trump replied: "“I think that when you look at that result, and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happened. A lot of the people—out of the people in this audience and maybe a couple that don’t—but most people understand what happened was a rigged election. And it’s a shame that we had to go through it. It’s very bad for our country. All over the world, they looked at it and they saw exactly what everyone else [saw]."
January 6th
Trump and Collins tussled over the timeline of events on January 6th - pointing out that he called for peaceful protests.
Pardons?
Trump said he would pardon "many" of the January 6th protesters currently sitting in jail.
"I am inclined to pardon many of them," Trump said. "I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control. But, you know, when you look at Antifa, what they’ve done to them… then what they’ve done to these people, they persecuted these people. And yeah, my answer is, I am most likely if I get in, I will most likely—I wouldn’t say it will be a large portion of them. You know, they did a very [applause] and it’d be very early on," he continued (via PJ Media).
Ashli Babbitt
When told that "Over 140 officers were injured" during the incident, Trump replied: "And a person named Ashli Babbitt was killed. You know what? She was killed and she shouldn't have been killed — and that thug that killed her — there was no reason to shoot her."
