Now that we’ve had some time to digest Donald Trump’s recent appearance at a CNN Town Hall event last week there are some conclusions that are inescapable.
First, he made the CNN chick look silly, uninformed, and petulant. It was like watching the pistol whipping of a blind ferret. Like him or not, and I’m not his biggest fan, the former president commanded the evening.
Second, he used his usual tricks of perfect comic timing, tactical sarcasm, and getting his message out by talking over his interrogator and ignoring her questions. It was a bravura performance.
And you’ve got to give CNN credit for putting on the show. As a conservative this is not an easy thing for me to do. But fair is fair and CNN CEO Chris Licht has cleaned some house and moved the network a shade to the middle.
That’s why the left is furious at CNN. AOC, “CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host,” she tweeted.
“This falls squarely on CNN. Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.” When your opposition is that ticked off you know you’re doing your job.
A lot of Republicans don’t get that. They think when they’re flayed and roasted by the NYT or the WaPo it’s an occasion to regret. Just the opposite. It’s a badge of honor that should be trumpeted.
However, all is not clear sailing for Trump. The recent civil case, where he was found guilty of sexual abuse, will not help him with female voters even in a Republican primary. Was the prosecution of this case probably horse manure? Yup. But politics is about optics, image, and perception, not facts.
Former New Jersey GOP Governor and possible presidential candidate Chris Christie commented on the aforementioned legal proceedings, “His response was ridiculous, that he didn’t even know the woman. I mean, how many coincidences are we going to have here with Donald Trump? He must be the unluckiest S.O.B. in the world.
“And he talked about it himself in the Access Hollywood tape. I was there with him when the Access Hollywood tape came out. And let me tell you something, he was embarrassed. He was embarrassed then and he’s tried to change the whole history now. … Look, this kind of conduct is unacceptable for somebody that we call a leader and him wanting to take leadership again. And so I do I think this is a silver bullet that ends Donald Trump’s candidacy?
“No, I just think it’s additional weight of evidence that people are going to look at and say, you know, if he’s this unlucky, if none of this has really happened, he’s just this unlucky, we don’t want a guy this unlucky as president either.” Christie may have a point. Just how many hits does Trump have to take for GOP primary voters to get tired of the drama?