5 Times CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Pushed Back at Donald Trump – and a Few Times She Didn’t (Video)

The CNN host and the former president sparred for more than an hour Wednesday night during a “town hall”

CNN Defends Trump Town Hall After Widespread Criticism
CNN

In her big moment in front of CNN’s primetime audience, host Kaitlan Collins did not back down from challenging former President Donald Trump when he took liberties with facts during a town hall meeting with voters in New Hampshire.

Collins, 31, did not blink when the former president said “you’re a nasty person” after she questioned him on his classified documents seizure scandal.

Here are some of the top moments when Collins pushed back on Trump’s assertions during the town hall at St. Anselm College, and the few times she didn’t.

ON ELECTION FRAUD:

Right off the bat, Trump claimed “it was a rigged election. And it’s a shame that we had to go through it. It’s very bad for our country.” Collins responded: “It was not a rigged election, it was not a stolen election. You and your supporters lost more than 60 court cases on the election. It’s been nearly two-and-a-half years. Can you publicly acknowledge that you did lose the 2020 election?”

When Trump doubled down on his “stolen election” claim, and said there were individuals voting multiple times in Georgia, Collins repeated statements from Republican election officials in that state disputing Trump’s accusations. “Republican officials debunked those claims about fraudulent ballots,” Collins said.

Trump said, “In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they had so many legal illegal votes. They didn’t even know what to do with them.” Collins responded with, “There weren’t any fraudulent votes in Wisconsin,” and noted that Trump’s campaign paid for a recount in Wisconsin, and lost again.

ON VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE:

Trump went on to say his Vice Pres. Mike Pence should not have certified the election that day, leaving Trump as president.  Collins replied, “He doesn’t have the authority to do that. As you know.” She added that Mike Pence has since said that Trump “endangered his life” that day by not telling rioters to leave the Capitol.

When asked if he would accept the results of the next presidential election, Trump said only “if I think it’s an honest election, I would be honored to and right now we are so far ahead… if I don’t win, this country is going to be in big trouble.” Collins shot back with, “But no commitment there on accepting the results regardless of outcome?”

ON THE JAN. 6 RIOT:

Trump claimed that he offered 10,000 National Guard troops to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for security before the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2020, but that his offer was rejected. Collins replied “Chris Miller was your acting defense secretary. He says you never gave that order.”

Collins asked Trump, “Why did it take you three hours to tell them to go home?” when violence broke out as Trump supporters smashed through barricades and the doors to the Capitol, while injuring Capitol Police officers. Trump replied that he did finally make a video telling the protesters and rioters to go home. “And I’m very proud of that video. I didn’t have a script. I don’t need scripts. It was a beautiful video.” Collins responded with “It wasn’t posted until 4:17 p.m. They breached the capital 2 p.m.”

ON TRUMP’S COMMENTS ABOUT WOMEN:

Dating back to the 1970s, at least 26 women have gone public with sexual misconduct allegations, including sexual assault. Many of then surfaced during his first presidential campaigned. Journalist E. Jean Carroll was awarded $5 million Tuesday in civil court in New York for her sexual abuse complaint against Trump.

While Collins was ready to take Trump to task on these issues, there were several instances when she did not call him out on blatantly misogynous statements about women during the Q&A.

Among his outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about the victim in one case, Trump said she called her African American husband “an ape,” and that her dog or cat is named Vagina. Collins did not respond to those comments, and moved on to the question of whether sexual assault allegations cases against Trump “will deter women from voting for you?” Trump said, “Oh, I don’t think so.”

ON BUILDING THE WALL:

During the Q&A, Trump said he had built a wall “hundreds of miles long” on the U.S. southern border during his presidency. “If we didn’t have it, it would be hard to believe it could be any worse than just letting people flow into our country. A country has to have borders.”

Collins responded: “You built 52 miles of new wall when you were in office, Mr. President. It wasn’t the complete wall.”

Trump shot back at Collins: “This is what she does.”

“I built hundreds of miles,” Trump said, adding the the Democrats are the “party of disinformation.”

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