CNN demonstrated once again on Wednesday night that they are not honest journalists when they not only asked only hostile questions of former President Donald Trump, but argued with many of the citizens attending the Republican Party Town Hall in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is the first-in-the nation Republican presidential primary.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was cast as the “moderator” of the Town Hall, but she defied any hint of fairness as she tried again and again to interrupt and challenge Trump, who is seeking the Republican Party nomination for president for a third time. This is nothing new — in 2012, for example, the so-called CBS moderator interrupted Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to take Democratic President Barack Obama’s side on a question over the Benghazi Affair in Libya — but if Wednesday night is any indication, it is certainly going to continue. In fact, it is going to be even more brazen.
Collins opened the program asking Trump about a civil lawsuit he lost to a woman who claimed he had sexually assaulted her more than a quarter-century ago. Trump told Collins, “I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is.” Trump added that the judge allowed any evidence in that the plaintiff wanted in, such as the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, but would not allow any evidence that would have impeached the plaintiff’s character, such as Trump’s allegation that she owned a cat named Vagina.
While asking Trump about a recent civil suit is legitimate, CNN began the night asking Trump about the 2020 results, then later criticized him for dwelling on the controversial 2020 election. In fact, when one citizen noted that very point, the reporter immediately went to another participant in the audience.
The audience was — as might be expected from a mostly Republican event — clearly with Trump, at some points even laughing at moderator Collins’ intensely hostile questioning of the former president.
Trump attempted, despite repeated interruptions and challenges from Collins, to explain why he believed the 2020 results were “rigged.” Trump said, “I think that when you look at that result and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a stupid person, you see what happened.… Most people understand what happened.”
Trump added, “That was a rigged election, and it’s a shame we had to go through it. It’s bad for our country. All over the world, they looked at it and they saw exactly what everyone else saw. Even if you look recently with the 51 intelligence agents — that made a difference. If you look at the FBI and Twitter, call it Twitter Files, it made a big difference.”
One might recall that the FBI interfered with the 2020 election, warning Twitter and Facebook that the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were all part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Shortly after the 2016 election, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said that Trump should know better than to publicly criticize the intelligence community in the United States, noting that they have several ways to retaliate. Every American who values self-government should be alarmed at such a statement — that the president of the United States should fear his own intelligence agencies — but the clear interference of that same community in the 2020 election proves Schumer’s point.
Of course, Collins saw nothing amiss about the 2020 election. “It was not a rigged election,” she insisted. “You and your supporters lost more than 60 court cases on the election.”
But Trump did not back down. “Let me just go on. If you look at True the Vote, they found — on government cameras where they were stuffing ballot boxes. So, with all of that, I think it’s a shame what happened.”
Collins also pressed Trump to be a cheerleader for Ukraine in its war with Russia. “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?”
Trump, however, refused to take the bait, retorting, “I want everyone to stop dying. They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying.” Of course, during the Cold War, when Russia was part of the totalitarian Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a communist tyranny, the Democratic Party and their media allies then both regularly praised Soviet dictators.
Collins also challenged Trump’s assertion of a double standard with the government, the media, and the Democratic Party in their opinion on the possession of classified documents in the hands of President Joe Biden, as opposed to the documents Trump says he declassified and took with him to Florida. (She argued that Biden did not ignore a subpoena, without adding that, in typical double-standard style, there was no such subpoena — or raid — involved with Biden’s documents). Trump noted that Biden had over 1,800 boxes of classified documents next to his Corvette and in other locations, including China Town. “They were laying all over the floor,” Trump said of Biden’s documents in his garage, while telling Collins that documents at his home were at a place with Secret Service agents, keeping them secure. Trump said he had every right to take the documents, while Biden took documents home from his time as vice-president and even from his days in the Senate. Biden had no right to declassify those documents that he took before he was president, yet Collins defended Biden.
Perhaps the most embarrassing exchange for Collins and CNN came when she accused Trump of stirring up the crowd that entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump produced evidence, which he pulled from inside his coat pocket, proving that he had sent out a public memo the day before, asking his supporters to “stay peaceful.” Then, at 2:30 p.m. on January 6, he sent out pleas for his supporters, telling them to respect the law, and “our men and women in blue.” Trump continued to read his remarks, including one that said, “We want no violence.”
Trump said, if he is elected president next year, he would be inclined to pardon many in the crowd at the Capitol on January 6. “I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them probably got out of control. But you know, when you look at it, when you look at Antifa and what they’ve done to Portland. When you look at Antifa and what they’ve done to Minneapolis and so many other places. Look what they did to Seattle.”
He added, “Many people were killed. I’m not trying to justify anything. But you have two standards of justice in this country.”
And, I might add, two standards on how the news is reported by the mainstream media. But Trump took the opportunity to challenge that media double standard in New Hampshire. Then again, if Americans did not already know that there was such a double standard, then they have not been paying attention.
