During Wednesday’s Townhall event in New Hampshire, Donald Trump spoke directly to the audience and ignored Kaitlan Collins’ politically biased and outdated questions. He did not engage with her and instead addressed the “gotcha” topics she continually posed throughout the night. As a result, he effectively reduced her role as the moderator.
Despite Collins attempting to start the townhall event with controversial topics and outdated leftist narratives, such as the 2020 election results, January 6th incident, and accusations in the E. Jean Carroll case, Trump received a standing ovation at the introduction. The highly anticipated event looked promising for the former president as he teased it earlier.
During the townhall, Collins talked about the previous election and allegations of fraud, but Trump emphasized the importance of upholding the Constitution and made it clear that he values it very much.
“I mean, we have elections. We have open borders, look at what’s happening on our southern border,” Trump said, pivoting to more pressing subjects, such as illegal immigration, as Collins, at this point in the townhall, continued to press him on the 2020 presidential election.
“They’re being released from prisons. They’re being released from mental institutions, and we have millions of people pouring into our country, and now they’re getting rid of Title 42, which I put on,” he said as a visibly irritated Collins contended there would be questions on that topic later.
Collins then shifted the conversation to discuss another topic often favored by left-leaning individuals: the events of January 6th.
“Do you have any regrets about your actions on January 6?” she asked, as Trump walked through exactly how that day went, beginning with a peaceful rally.
“I said, walk peacefully and patriotically, you know, many different things. In fact, I brought a list of things — I don’t want to bore the audience, but we can go sentence after sentence after sentence of things,” he said, noting that Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — whom Trump referred to “Crazy Nancy” — refused his offer for additional security.
“I offered them National Guard, I said. We’ll give you soldiers. We’ll give you a National Guard. We’ll give you whatever you want. And they turned me down. Yeah. And in fact … she turned me down in writing. They turned me down,” he said, as Collins continued to argue with him. That prompted Trump to show receipts, literally pulling out pieces of paper and reading exactly what he wrote that day and at what time — a move the audience visibly enjoyed and cheered for.
“On January 5, the day before, I said please support our Capitol police and law enforcement. They are truly on the side of our country. Stay peaceful. Stay peaceful. This was the day before and this was in the form of Twitter — now use Truth. Truth Social– I think it’s far superior,” Trump said, dominating the conversation with his paper as Collins looked on and speaking directly to the audience. Trump also turned the narrative around, calling out the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt that day.
“A person named Ashli Babbitt was killed. She shouldn’t have been killed, and that thug who killed her – there was no reason to shoot her,” he said. “She was a good person. She was a patriot.”
When asked if he would pardon the January 6 rioters, including Proud Boys members, Trump criticized the fairness of trials in Washington DC and New York City. He also commented on the E. Jean Carroll verdict and denied the allegations of sexual abuse.
During his speech, Trump parodied the claims to showcase their ridiculousness. Collins kept asking questions that appeared to be old and biased. She asked Trump if he felt sorry for what he said in the Access Hollywood tape. Trump responded by stating that well-known people continue to enjoy certain privileges.
“But if you’re a famous person, if you’re a star, and I’m not referring to myself, I’m saying people that are famous people that are powerful,” he said as Collins attempted to interrupt, to no avail.
“They tend to do pretty well in a lot of different ways. .. It’s been true for one million years, approximately one million years, perhaps a little bit less,” Trump said.
Perhaps the best example of Trump’s dominance throughout the night was at the end of the event when Collins tried to lecture him about the Presidential Records Act.
“I have every right, to under the Presidential Records Act,” he said of the documents he possessed, pointing out that several other past leaders have taken documents — including the fact that President Biden has boxes of them.
“The vice president cannot declassify. He didn’t have the right to declassify. He has documents from when he was a senator,” Trump said.
“That’s the question that investigators have, I think is why you held on to those documents when you knew the federal government was seeking them and then had given you a subpoena to return,” Collins continued, routinely attempting to interrupt and correct Trump, which prompted him to ask Collins if he could answer the question.
“Can I talk?” he said.
“Yeah, what’s the answer,” Collins replied.
“Do you mind?” Trump asked.
“I would like for you to answer,” she said, interrupting Trump again by sarcastically adding, “That’s why I asked it.”
“It’s very simple– you are nasty person, ok?” Trump said after the CNN moderator’s quip, prompting cheers and laughter from the CNN audience.
After the town hall was over, Trump engaged with the audience and even dismissed Collins, who appeared visibly annoyed.
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