He's Back! CNN's Townhall Proves Trump Is Once Again the Dominant Figure of American Politics | Opinion

Newsweek ^ | May11, 2023 | Monica Crowley

[Lakeside Granny]

He's back!

Actually, he never went away. But now, former President Donald Trump is once again the clearly dominant figure on the American political scene, far eclipsing everyone else, including the sitting President.

On Thursday night, he made a long-awaited return to CNN, the lion's den of what he calls "fake news," for a primetime townhall broadcast live from New Hampshire. Moderated by Kaitlan Collins, the forum offered the former president a chance to address a wide range of issues, take questions from voters, and perhaps most importantly, demonstrate that he remains the 800 pound gorilla of the Republican Party.

It began with a discussion of the 2020 election results. Collins challenged Trump on his claims that the race was "rigged," but Trump held firm that it was not a truly fair election. Indeed, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg pumped $400 million into key states for drop boxes, get out the vote operations, ballot harvesting and other activity that heavily favored Democrats. Just weeks before the election, the FBI worked with Twitter and other social media companies to suppress the New York Post's factual story of Hunter Biden's laptop, and all of the evidence of Biden family corruption on it. At the same time, 51 current and former intelligence officials signed a letter falsely claiming the laptop was "Russian disinformation." And the pandemic allowed for the expansion of mass mail-in voting, early voting, and relaxed signature verification standards, opening up at the least the possibility of abuse.

[Pirate Ragnar]

At this point, I support DeSantis, but clearly Trump has tremendous momentum. Credit where credit it due - Trump hit a homerun on CNN.

[Jane Long]

Team DeSantis is melting down over Trump’s great CNN Townhall last night.

Everyone but those working for/supporting DeSantis said that Trump was the clear winner..

These people are fools 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/UFVXGsKrsN— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) May 11, 2023

[who knows what evil?]

Wonder what Steve Cortes thought of the Trump performance? :-)

[SoConPubbie]

👍

[Publius]

This reminds me of something that happened in 1966. Richard Nixon was in the process of campaigning for Republican candidates for governor and Congress. RNC Chair Ray Bliss had rebuilt the party after the 1964 loss and had recruited the best slate of candidates the party had offered since 1948. Nixon was out there campaigning for his party and of course gathering IOU's for his projected run in 1968.

At a presidential press conference, Lyndon Johnson made the mistake of calling Nixon a "chronic campaigner." Thanks to the FCC's Fairness Doctrine, the TV networks were now required to give Nixon equal time to rebut the charge. Nixon chose a Republican rally as his venue and gave one of the best speeches of his career. It kick-started his campaign for the 1968 nomination.

Little mistake can have massive consequences.

[Lakeside Granny]

Me thinks Steve Cortes is going to live to regret the day he jumped off the Trump Train.

I think the DeSactimonious ship is sinking.

Bannon has stated he will never be back on the WR.

[cnsmom]

Given the history between President Trump and Ms. Collins and the topic of Putin. He was ready to swing.CNN sacrificed her and never gave it a second thought.

[Lakeside Granny]

Juanita Broaddrick
@atensnut
·
51m
BREAKING: CNN announces there will be no more live audiences at town halls. 🤣🤣🤣

[ModelBreaker]

“His consultants are flipping out and trying to convince him otherwise.”

LOL. Of course they want him to run.

I would prefer he not run this year. I think he will make a fine president. But if he runs against Trump, Trump will destroy his electability in 2028.

[DouglasKC]

Wow how did this somewhat fair article get past the Newsweak editors censors?

[Savage Beast]

Thanks!