The media circus that is Donald Trump took its side-show attraction to CNN last week for a live town hall with New Hampshire voters. And what we learned from this is that the former president is still spewing the same lies that he has been over the past few years.
The 2020 election was rigged and stolen. Intelligence agents made a 16-point difference in the outcome of the election. That Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. That President Joe Biden shut down American energy. That he didn’t ask Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff to find votes to change the result of the election, despite recordings of the call where Trump repeatedly suggests that Georgia officials should be able to find votes, saying “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” one more than he lost by. And the list goes on and on, including his outlandish claim that he could end the war in the Ukraine “in 24 hours.”
He downplayed the violence of Jan. 6, saying “A couple probably got out of control.” He insulted CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who was put in an unenviable task of trying to keep Trump in check, calling her a “nasty person,” at which point the crowd broke out in cheers. CNN analyst Bill Carter tweeted, “This thing was madness, total madness. Like giving a microphone to Drunk Uncle and saying: go for it!” No truer words were ever spoken.
While many questioned why CNN would air this (and I admit, when I first heard about it, I did too), this is news, albeit, as Trump likes to say, fake news. I don’t think Trump is capable of telling the truth about anything. He just likes to give his version of the truth and expects everyone to believe it.
And the scary thing is, his supporters do. They lap up every word like a dog at his water bowl on a hot, summer day. In their eyes, he can do no wrong. And, for worse or worse, he is the (supposedly) GOP front-runner, though that could change. If he is, the election will come down to Biden vs. Trump, Round 2. By the time Election Day 2024 rolls around, Biden will be almost 82 years old, while Trump will be 78. There is a rule that you have to be 35 years old to run for president; I believe there should be one for an age you can no longer run, probably 65. I would like to see younger, more dynamic individuals running for a seat in the Oval Office.
The CNN town hall proved that nothing has changed in Trump’s world (in his mind) over the last four years, despite everything that has happened to him. The lawsuits. The accusations. The impeachments. The investigations. Or, as Trump likes to call these things, “a witch hunt.”
Nope, to Trump (and his supporters) all that means nothing. This country barely survived the divide his last presidency created. If he’s elected again, I’m not sure it can survive.
