Former United States president Donald Trump made a rare live appearance on CNN on Wednesday (May 10), his first since 2016. CNN’s town hall in New Hampshire was the first time Trump faced prolonged questioning from media outside the friendly confines of the conservative outlets of his choosing. Earlier, he had branded CNN for fake news and never allowed any of its journalists an interview while serving as the president.
During’s Wednesday’s town hall, Trump repeatedly lied about the 2020 presidential election which he lost, made false claims about abortion and the January 6 Capitol riots, and mocked a former columnist he was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming.
2020 election was rigged: Trump
Trump kicked off the CNN town hall by saying that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. He said that millions of votes were stolen in the poll race.
Fact check: According to a report by The Guardian early Thursday, there is no evidence of widespread fraud and poll officials across the country, including Republican leaders, repeatedly reaffirmed this over the past two years. Trump lost the election to Joe Biden fair and square 306 to 232 in the Electoral College. Biden earned over seven million votes than Trump did.
Trump’s false claims about abortion
Responding to a question about the US Supreme Court overturning abortion rights last year, Trump took credit for appointing three of the justices who joined in the majority ruling saying, “It was such a great victory and people are starting to understand it now.” He repeatedly claimed that abortion rights supporters wanted to “kill a baby” in the ninth month of pregnancy or even after birth.
Fact check: This claim is based on a misleading interpretation of a Senate vote.
Jan 6 Capitol Hill riots
During Wednesday’s town hall, Donald Trump asserted that a couple of the rioters probably got out of control and compared the insurrection to left-leaning protests that turned violent in other cities.
Fact check: The above statement is false. Hundreds of rioters had been charged with violence towards police on January 6 and the former president downplaying the violence and equivocating the insurrection with social justice protests failed to recognise the severity of the attack.
The sexual abuse case
Trump’s appearance on CNN came a day after a New York jury found him liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and defaming her when she spoke about it publicly. The jury rejected her claim of rape and instead found Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse.
During the town hall, Trump said that the jury in the civil trial found he did not rape Carroll and said he “didn’t do anything else either.”
“They said he didn’t rape her, and I didn’t do anything else either,” he added.
Fact check: According to a report by CNN, Trump’s claims require more context as the jury rejected Carroll’s rape claim but found the former president responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse.
Trump on Ukraine war
Donald Trump repeated his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin but said he made a bad mistake to invade Ukraine. Trump, without any explanation or evidence, told CNN that if he was still US president, Putin would have never invaded Ukraine. He also claimed that Washington provided $171 billion “so far” to Ukraine, while the European Union (EU) cumulatively gave $20 billion in aid.
Trump further said that the US was giving away so much that “we don’t have ammunition for ourselves right now.”
Fact check: Since the beginning of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022, the US provided Ukraine with $36.9 billion in military aid. CNN reported that while American and European weapon stockpiles have been depleted, the claim that the US does not have ammunition is false.
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