5/11/2023

2020 ELECTION/MEDIA: “Donald Trump’s hour-plus appearance on a cable news town hall forum on Wednesday night was barely over when his political rivals – both announced and prospective – began firing out tweets, statements and press releases attacking the Republican front-runner for next year’s White House election.

The forum, hosted by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, was a combative spectacle, with topics ranging from abortion to foreign policy to Mr Trump’s unfounded claims of 2020 election fraud and sympathy for those arrested for the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack…

For their part, however, Mr Trump’s campaign team claimed the evening was a success. Their candidate had more than an hour of prime-time attention before a crowd that gave him a standing ovation upon arrival, laughed at his jokes and applauded as he sparred with Ms Collins.”

-Anthony Zurcher, “Trump CNN town hall: ‘Nonsense’ – Republican rivals blast performance,” bbc.com, May 11, 2023