We thought the U.S. was in remission, but Donald Trump is back like a cancer that refuses to go away. The former president has plans to be president again, and rather than learning from his mistakes (“What mistakes?” he may ask) he is instead leaning into what got him elected in the first place – lies, lies, and then some more lies. That is the opinion of television host Anderson Cooper at any rate after Trump’s appearance at a CNN Town Hall.
The Town Hall was over one hour of Trump talking about how the 2020 election was “fraud”, how he would pardon many of the January 6th rioters, defended his comments about grabbing women by the p***y, and also called the trial where he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed journalist E. Jean Carroll, which ended a mere few days ago “rigged” as well, despite already having been ordered to pay her $5 million in damages.
More disturbing than perhaps the comments themselves were many in the audience’s reaction. They laughed and even clapped and cheered as Trump spewed lie after lie with a sprinkling of hateful, sexist, and racist rhetoric. In response to this event, Cooper spent a good chunk of his primetime program to address what had been said that night, and the state that the U.S. finds itself ahead of the 2024 election.
Reported by Deadline, Cooper addressed the fact that it was his own network that gave Trump this platform, saying, “You have every right to be outraged and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?”
Many were not happy with CNN for allowing Trump this opportunity, with many believing it would be impossible for moderator Kaitlan Collins to fact-check him at the same speed with which he lies. A lie can be instantaneous, finding the truth, however, can take time, which was one of the main issues with last night’s Town Hall. Cooper continued,
“Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on the stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions, and predictably continued to spew lie after lie after lie. And I get it. It was disturbing.”
Cooper then listed many of the false claims that Trump made during the live broadcast, before focusing not on Trump but on the audience, who were reported to have been made up of Republican and independent but Republican-leaning voters, particularly their reaction to Trump once again defaming Carroll.
“It was certainly disturbing to hear that audience young and old, our fellow citizens, people who love their kids and go to church, laugh and applaud his lies. And his continued defamation of a woman who according to a jury of his peers, he sexually abused and defamed.”
According to The New York Times, Carroll is now weighing up her options to go after him once again for defamation, a suit that she may likely win given she just won her sexual assault and defamation case 24 hours before this broadcast.
Both Cooper and CNN Worldwide CEO Chris Licht are of the mind that they simply cannot ignore Trump as he is currently the frontrunner for the Republican Party in the upcoming Presidential election, with Licht saying, ” There is so much we learned last night about what a second Trump presidency would look like, that is incredibly important for the country to hear.”
Cooper also told viewers,
“As good a job as Kaitlan Collins did in trying to fact-check him, it is impossible to fact-check fully because he lies so shamelessly. Now, many of you think CNN shouldn’t have given him any platform to speak, and I understand the anger about that, giving him the audience, the time, I get that. But this is what I also get. The man you were so disturbed to see and hear from last night, that man is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president. And according to polling, no other Republican is even close. That man you were so upset to hear from last night, he may be president United States in less than two years. And that audience that upset you? That’s a sampling of about half the country. They are your family members, your neighbors, and they are voting, and many said they’re voting for him. Now, maybe you haven’t been paying attention to him since he left office. Maybe you’ve been enjoying not hearing from him thinking it cannot happen again, some investigation is going to stop him. Well, it hasn’t so far. So if last night showed anything, it showed it can happen again. It is happening again. He hasn’t changed, and he is running hard.”
It’s a sobering thought indeed, and with the U.S. as divided as it is, it is very hard right now to see which way the pendulum will swing.