Trump town hall – live: Trump to appeal E Jean Carroll verdict as she threatens to sue him again

Donald Trump is appealing the verdict in the E Jean Carroll case after he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

This comes after the 79-year-old said she may sue him for a third time after his “vile” comments during the CNN town hall.

Ms Carroll spoke to The New York Times on Thursday morning, saying that the former president’s comments were “just stupid, it’s just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people”.

Her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told the paper that “Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it”.

Mr Trump also defended CNN over his chaotic town hall, saying that the network did “the right thing” by putting him on their channel.

Meanwhile, CNN CEO Chris Licht praised town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins for her “masterful performance last night” during an editorial call with network staff.

“America was served very well by what we did last night,” he added, according to former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter.

“Many CNN employees strongly disagree,” wrote Stelter.

Key points

• Trump defends CNN over town hall as his ratings for event drop

• Impossible task or journalism fail? Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s rising star who faced Trump and lost

• Trump to appeal E Jean Carroll $5m verdict after being found liable for sexual abuse

• ‘Shameful’: AOC blasts CNN’s controversial Trump town hall

• Trump may be sued again by E Jean Carroll after he called sexual abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

View host Joy Behar asks: ‘Was CNN passing out Kool-Aid?’

10:30 , Joe Sommerlad

Having said on an earlier instalment of the popular ABC chat show that she believed it was right for CNN to give Trump a mainstream platform, The View’s Joy Behar said she had changed her mind after watching Wednesday’s town hall, complaining the New Hampshire audience had been packed with members of “his cult”.

“I was wrong,” she conceded on Thursday’s show, alluding to the earlier disagreement with colleague Sunny Hostin.

“She said they shouldn’t show him, and I said they should, because I’m a very big defender of the First Amendment, and I believe that everybody should show who they really are and let’s vote accordingly.

“But what I didn’t know was that the audience would be filled with his cult. I would like to know if CNN was passing out Kool-Aid before the event started.”

She continued: “Why would CNN put only Republicans and people who love him in the audience? If I do a comedy show and everybody loves me, I’m going to be funnier. That’s how it works. But if you have people who don’t particularly think you’re that funny, you have to work harder.

“That’s what I saw last night. I saw a bad stand-up comedian with a bunch of people in his cult who love him. And that is not American, as far as I’m concerned.”

Trump defames E Jean Carroll again in vicious attack at CNN town hall a day after $5m sex abuse trial verdict

10:00 , Sravasti Dasgupta

Donald Trump used his platform on CNN to lash out at E Jean Carroll just a day after a jury found that he had sexually abused and defamed the former journalist.

Ms Carroll, 79, sued the former president for raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 1996, and then “destroying” her reputation when he claimed she was lying.

The jury didn’t find Mr Trump liable of raping Ms Carroll, but it found the one-time president more likely than not sexually abused Ms Carroll.

Mr Trump was also found liable for defamation and awarded her a total of $5m.

The twice-impeached president mocked Ms Carroll at the CNN town hall that aired just a day after the verdict.

Read more:

Trump defames E Jean Carroll again at CNN town hall hours after $5m trial verdict

CNN praises Collins for Trump interview

09:30 , Namita Singh

CNN defended its decision to put Mr Trump on the air in a statement after the event, which was moderated by host Kaitlan Collins.

“Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked tough, fair and revealing questions,” a network spokesperson said.

“She followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner.

“That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

US warns migrants against illegal crossings as Title 42 set to expire: ‘Our border is not open’

09:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday warned migrants that the end of pandemic-era border restrictions will not enable them to enter the United States by crossing the US-Mexico border.

Mr Mayorkas appeared at the daily White House press briefing to explain the Biden administration’s preparations for the end of Title 42 – a Trump-era public health restriction which allowed most asylum seekers to be quickly turned back – and stressed that despite the end of the controversial policy, America’s borders “are not open”.

“If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subject to steeper consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year ban on reentry and potential criminal prosecution,” he said.

Mr Mayorkas told reporters the Biden administration has been preparing for the eventual end of Title 42 for the past two years, but he also said he and administration officials are “clear-eyed” about the challenge that will be posed by the large numbers of migrants who are expected to attempt to cross into the US in hopes of gaining asylum.

Read more:

US warns migrants against illegal crossings: ‘Our border is not open’

Trump to get schooled on rules after district attorney worries he'll use evidence to slam witnesses

08:30 , Namita Singh

Donald Trump was ordered Thursday to appear by video at a 23 May hearing in a Manhattan criminal case after a judge this week set rules barring him from using evidence in the case to attack witnesses.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan scheduled the hybrid hearing — the former president on a TV screen, his lawyers and prosecutors in court — to go over the restrictions with Mr Trump and to make clear that he risks being held in contempt if he violates them.

The case is continuing in state court even as Mr Trump’s lawyers seek to have it moved to federal court. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is considering the transfer request, issued an order this week setting paperwork deadlines and a hearing for late June.

Judge Merchan, still in charge while that drama plays out, agreed to instruct Mr Trump on the rules by video, rather than in person, after a prosecutor reminded him last week that bringing Mr Trump to court would present mammoth security and logistical challenges.

Mr Trump’s 4 April arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, attracted a crush of media and protesters, involved multiple street closures, extra security screenings and shut down non-Trump court business for an afternoon.

“We’ll setup the camera for Mr Trump to appear wherever he is at that time and we’ll do it here in the courtroom virtually,” Merchan said.

Judge Merchan issued what’s known as a protective order on Monday, days after a hearing where he urged Mr Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office to reach a compromise regarding the Republican’s access to and use of evidence turned over by prosecutors prior to trial.

Trump may be sued again by E Jean Carroll after he called sexual abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

08:00 , Graeme Massie

E Jean Carroll says that she may sue Donald Trump again after the former president branded her sexual abuse claim against him “fake” and a “made up story” during a CNN town hall.

Mr Trump’s lashed out at Ms Carroll just one day after a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting her in the 1990s and ordered him to pay $5m in damages.

Ms Carroll, 79, sued the former president for raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 1996, and then “destroying” her reputation when he claimed she was lying.

The jury didn’t find Mr Trump liable of raping Ms Carroll, but it found the one-time president more likely than not sexually abused Ms Carroll.

During the CNN event on Wednesday evening, Mr Trump described her as a “whack job” and called the trial “rigged”.

Read more:

Carroll may sue Trump again after he called sex abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

Eric Trump threatens to sue Rachel Maddow

07:30 , Namita Singh

Eric Trump has reportedly threatened to sue MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for pointing out that he will appear alongside antisemitic speakers during a ReAwaken America Tour stop at Trump National Doral in Miami this weekend.

Donald Trump’s younger son is scheduled to speak this weekend along with his wife, former Fox News contributor Lara Trump, alongside right-wing influencers Scott McKay and Charlie Ward, who have been accused of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and praising Adolf Hitler, according to The Daily Beast.

Maddow made note of the speaker schedule and expressed shock that one of Mr Trump’s sons would publicly appear alongside them.

Graig Graziosi has more:

Eric Trump threatens to sue Rachel Maddow

Trump calls police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt a ‘thug’ during CNN town hall

07:00 , Graig Graziosi

Donald Trump once again demonised the Capitol police who that shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt on 6 January, 2021.

During a much-maligned CNN town hall featuring the former president, Mr Trump called the officer, who is Black, a “thug.”

In addition, he falsely said that the officer bragged about killing Babbitt. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who moderated the town hall, pushed back on that claim.

Babbitt was a former member of the US Air Force and a Trump loyalist when she answered the then-president’s call to protest the 2020 election results in Washington DC.

She was wearing a Trump flag tied around her neck like a cape when she attempted to climb into the Capitol through a broken window. An officer inside the building shot and killed her.

Read more:

Trump calls police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt a ‘thug’ during CNN town hall

Impossible task or journalism fail? Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s rising star who faced Trump and lost

06:30 , Namita Singh

A journalist who was once banned from a White House event for asking awkward questions about Vladimir Putin has moderated an event featuring a man facing legal jeopardy who lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, in a town hall aired on the cable news network he blamed for publishing fake news.

We’re talking about CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and Donald Trump, who of course wants to be president once again, in his first time back on the news network he has spent years disparaging.

Collins became known to most in her previous role as CNN’s White House correspondent.

She delivered breaking news from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a commanding, confident tone throughout the Trump presidency, fast becoming a familiar face onscreen and known as a political authority, reports my colleague Oliver O’Connell.

Kaitlan Collins: CNN’s rising star who went head-to-head with Trump

Indiana GOP Senator says he won’t support Trump for presidential nomination

06:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young told CNN that he’s not planning on supporting Mr Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024.

When asked why, he said: “Where do I begin?”

About Mr Trump not calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, he said: “I think President Trump’s judgment is wrong in this case. President Putin and his government have engaged in war crimes.”

“That’s why I don’t intend to support him for the Republican nomination,” he added.

He later added, according to HuffPost: “You want a nominee to win the general election. As President Trump says, I prefer winners. He consistently loses. In fact, he has a habit of losing not just his own elections, but losing elections for others.”

“I can’t think of someone worst equipped to bring people together... and advance our collective values than the former president. I don’t think conservatives would be well served by electing someone whose core competency seems to be owning someone on Twitter,” he added.

Mr Young didn’t answer when asked if he would support Mr Trump if he becomes the GOP presidential nominee.

“I don’t think he’ll be the nominee. Republicans are in a winning mood. We want to win. We know he’s the shortest path to losing,” he said.

Justice Department seeks to put Trump deposition on hold in case of FBI agent fired over text messages

05:30 , Namita Singh

The Justice Department asked a judge on Thursday to put on hold a scheduled deposition of Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by an FBI agent who was fired over text messages critical of the former president.

The government said in a federal court filing that a judge should order lawyers for Peter Strzok to take the deposition of FBI director Christopher Wray before they seek to question Mr Trump.

The Justice Department says an interview with Mr Wray may eliminate the need for Mr Trump’s deposition, and that if the judge handling the lawsuit does not grant its request, it will ask a federal appeals court to intervene.

Lawyers for the former president support the Justice Department’s position, according to a footnote in the government’s filing, while Mr Strzok’s attorneys oppose it.

Report:

Justice Dept. seeks to put Trump deposition on hold in case of FBI agent fired over text messages

VOICES: Disastrous Trump town hall begs the question: What was CNN thinking?

05:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at CNN’s editorial meeting on Thursday.

What did they think would happen when they put Donald Trump and an audience of friendly supporters on live television for an hour and a half?

Did they think treating him like a normal candidate would lead him to act like a normal candidate?

Did they think making the moderator of the town hall a young, female reporter who once worked for the right-wing Daily Caller would lead him to treat her with respect even when she pointed out that he was blatantly lying on any number of topics?

Look, I get the reasoning behind offering Mr Trump a town hall appearance.

Read more:

Disastrous Trump town hall begs the question: What was CNN thinking?

Trump turned his liabilities into laugh lines at CNN town hall, underscoring GOP rivals' challenge

04:30 , AP

The Republicans in the audience laughed when former President Donald Trump mocked a woman who accused him of rape. They cheered when he defended his role during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And they applauded again after he said he was “honored” to “terminate Roe v. Wade.”

Trump’s defiant performance at the CNN town hall on Wednesday may ultimately hurt his standing with key groups of voters in next fall’s general election, especially women, suburbanites and independents. But the reaction of those who attended also demonstrated his extraordinary grip on the conservative voters who will soon decide the fight for the GOP presidential nomination.

The magnitude of the challenge ahead for Trump’s Republican rivals was clear as the former president repeatedly turned his greatest political liabilities into jokes and applause lines for the GOP base. On Thursday, a day after the town hall, Trump’s Republican critics conceded they don’t know how to stop him.

Read more:

Trump turned his liabilities into laugh lines at CNN town hall, underscoring GOP rivals' challenge

Trump defends CNN over town hall as his ratings for event drops

04:15 , Namita Singh

Donald Trump has defended CNN for hosting his controversial town hall event as viewing figures show his ratings for the event were down.

“I was happy to do it,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital. “I got the word out to millions of people that would generally not hear this point of view concerning things such as the border, inflation, the economy, energy independence, the Afghanistan catastrophe and more.”

“CNN is taking a lot of heat,” Mr Trump added. “I think CNN did the right thing by putting me on—all you have to do is look at their fantastic ratings.

The chaotic event in New Hampshire, which allowed the former president a broad platform to spread election lies and conspiracy theories, drew 3.3 million viewers.

While it made CNN the most watched cable news network on Wednesday night, according to ratings from Nielson, the event drew fewer viewers than town halls he did on Fox News, reports Axios.

The town hall also failed to beat the 3.4 million viewers who tuned into a Joe Biden town hall in 2020 before the presidential election in which he beat Mr Trump.

CNN has been blasted by insiders at the network for its decision for putting on the live event, but Mr Trump came to the network’s defence on Thursday.

Report:

Trump defends CNN over town hall as his ratings for event drop

Trump may be sued again by E Jean Carroll after he called sexual abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

04:00 , Graeme Massie

E Jean Carroll says that she may sue Donald Trump again after the former president branded her sexual abuse claim against him “fake” and a “made up story” during a CNN town hall.

Mr Trump’s lashed out at Ms Carroll just one day after a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting her in the 1990s and ordered him to pay $5m in damages.

Ms Carroll, 79, sued the former president for raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 1996, and then “destroying” her reputation when he claimed she was lying.

Read more:

Carroll may sue Trump again after he called sex abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

Marjorie Taylor Greene praises Melania Trump for being a good immigrant

03:30 , Abe Asher

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has praised former First Lady Melania Trump as a model immigrant to the United States as a rule allowing immigration officials to deport migrants as a public health measure ends.

Ms Greene’s comments about Ms Trump came as she was addressing the House of Representatives on Wednesday with remarks about the state of the country’s southern border and broader immigration policies.

“I would like to remind everyone that Republicans believe in legal immigration,” Ms Greene said. “As a matter of fact, we are very proud of our former first lady, Melania Trump, who immigrated legally to the United States. But there is a clear difference in policies when we talk about border and security for the United States of America.”

Ms Greene, a self-identified Christian nationalist who supported efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election and lost her committee assignments in the last Congress for endorsing political violence, favours strict immigration control at the US-Mexico border.

Immigration has taken centre stage this week in Washington as Title 42, the public health order put in place that allowed the government to expel migrants who arrived from countries with Covid-19 outbreaks, is lifted today.

Read more:

Marjorie Taylor Greene praises Melania Trump for being a good immigrant

Debt limit fight: Trump tells GOP 'do a default' if needed, but talks with Biden in full swing

03:00 , AP

In the search for a budget deal to resolve the government’s debt limit crisis, billions of dollars of unspent COVID money is on the table. So are ideas as far-ranging as easing permits for energy projects and simply ordering broad spending caps — all still in the mix as negotiators from the White House and Congress hunkered down Thursday for the latest round of closed-door talks.

The gears of Washington are beginning to move, not smoothly but determinedly, on resolving the crisis, a turn of events in itself after months of stalemate between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the deadline looms to avert an economy-fracturing national default.

Biden is to meet again with McCarthy and other congressional leaders Friday as talks intensify. Washington is staring down a June 1 deadline to raise the debt limit to allow continued borrowing to cover already accrued bills or risk the nation’s first modern-day debt default.

Then there’s one more development thrown into the works: Donald Trump is urging fellow Republicans to let America default on its debts if they don’t get the budget cutting deal they want from Biden.

Read more:

Debt limit fight: Trump tells GOP 'do a default' if needed, but talks with Biden in full swing

CNN faces backlash over chaotic Trump town hall event

02:30 , AP

CNN is facing a backlash over its town hall featuring former President Donald Trump, an event that swiftly turned chaotic in a stark display of the tightrope facing journalists covering a leading 2024 Republican candidate who refuses to play by the rules.

The town hall Wednesday was the first major television event of the 2024 presidential campaign, and CNN defended its decision to hold it as a chance to put Trump in front of a wider audience, outside of the conservative media bubble he has largely kept to since early in his presidency.

Critics said the event, which was staged in front of Republicans and unaffiliated voters who were expected to vote in the GOP primary, instead turned into a Trump campaign rally that produced little actual news and allowed Trump to repeat longstanding falsehoods while dodging difficult questions

Tom Jones, a senior writer at the media research institute Poynter, said he had favored the idea of CNN holding the town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. But he said he was surprised by the conduct of the audience, which he had expected to be more neutral.

Instead, the crowd gave Trump a standing ovation when he walked onstage, applauded some of his most provocative comments and laughed at many of his quips, including when he criticized E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who accused him of raping her in 1996 and this week won a $5 million judgement against him.

Read more:

CNN faces backlash over chaotic Trump town hall event

‘The Hindenburg of TV news’

02:15 , Graeme Massie

Former MSNBC broadcaster Keith Olbermann called the town hall “the Hindenburg of TV news”.

“@CNN gave its credibility to Trump’s madness It must fire CEO Chris Licht: its owners must sell the brand they destroyed; E. Jean Carroll must sue over new defamation; @kaitlancollins must sue her agent,” he tweeted.

“If you haven’t been paying attention to Donald Trump for a while, the CNN town hall is a reintroduction to what he’s been telling his supporters for two years,” Garrett Haake of NBC News wrote.

VOICES: Trump’s restrictive immigration policy is ending – but his politics remain under Biden

02:00 , Eric Garcia

At midnight on Thursday, Title 42, the policy former president Donald Trump invoked to restrict immigration to the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, will expire. Already, news stories have abounded about how areas near the US-Mexico border are preparing for an influx of migrants.

The politics of Title 42 are already playing out in Arizona’s Senate race next year. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who last year left the Democratic Party to become an independent, and Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina have introduced legislation to preserve the provision for an additional two years.

Ms Sinema, who spent years angering the left when she had a “D” next to her name, has yet to announce whether she’ll seek re-election. But Representative Ruben Gallego, the Democrat who announced his challenge against her earlier this year, sent four letters to Biden administration officials saying that border communities in Arizona “are simply unequipped to handle the surge of migrants,” NBC News reported.

Mr Gallego is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who led the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s political action committee last cycle. The fact that Mr Gallego has expressed concerns about communities near Mexico being overrun shows just how drastically the politics of immigration even among Democrats has changed from the past decade.

For Republicans, ending Title 42 has been a political boon. GOP senators largely dashed any hopes of another Covid-19 relief package last year on the basis of Mr Biden’s decision to end the policy.

Read more:

Trump’s restrictive immigration policy is ending – his politics remain under Biden

Trump defends CNN over town hall as his ratings for event drop

01:34 , Graeme Massie

Former president drew 3.3 million viewers on network, less than he achieved at similar events on Fox News.

Trump defends CNN over town hall as his ratings for event drop

VIDEO: Trump brushes off sex abuse verdict in CNN town hall

01:00 , Gustaf Kilander

‘Disgraceful on every level’: Morning Joe goes after CNN for Trump town hall

Friday 12 May 2023 00:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Florida Republican Congressman and host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, led the chorus of outrage on Thursday morning, saying that “I’m constantly telling people not to catastrophize over Trump, that he’s actually going to lose because he keeps drilling down deeper and deeper into his base”.

“I’m gonna use catastrophizing language here, but it was just it was disgraceful on every level. I wouldn’t say it’s dangerous for democracy because we passed that a long time ago, but it showed the corrosive effects of Trumpism over eight years,” he added.

“And I’ve got to say the most shocking part was an audience who cheered on a president who tried to overturn American democracy. An audience that mocked and ridiculed a woman who a jury of her peers, of Donald Trump’s peers, found had been sexually assaulted. Those Americans their last night turned that into a punch line.”

“They laughed and dismissed cops getting the s*** kicked out of them on January the sixth, over and over again. Calling a cop a thug, who actually was trying to stop people on the House floor from being killed. I could go just could go on and on,” he said.

‘This is a horror show that we don’t want a rerun of'

Friday 12 May 2023 00:00 , Gustaf Kilander

CNN panellist Van Jones said, “I think if you’re a Democrat watching that you think, ‘We’ve been criticizing and complaining about Biden? This is a horror show that we don’t want a rerun of,’ and I think a lot of Democrats were appalled”.

According to former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, network CEO Chris Licht began an editorial call on Thursday morning by praising Ms Collins for a “masterful performance last night”.

“I couldn’t be more proud of her,” he added.

“You do not have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say that we didn’t get them,” Mr Licht told employees, many of whom are furious about the Trump event, according to Stelter.

“Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news. Made a lot of news,” Mr Licht said. “That is our job.”

“While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story,” Mr Licht added.

He said covering Mr Trump is “messy and tricky, but it’s our job” and that “America was served very well by what we did last night”.

Stelter wrote, “Many CNN employees strongly disagree.”

‘Republicans got what they needed out of this,’ pro-Trump analyst says about Trump town hall

Thursday 11 May 2023 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Kaitlan Collins was backed up by fellow CNN anchor Poppy Harlow, who criticised pro-Trump analyst David Urban for comparing the event to Joe Biden appearing on Fox News.

Harlow hosted CNN This Morning on Thursday alongside Phil Mattingly with panellists Mr Urban, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times and Van Jones.

“This was a forum where Kaitlan got a lot of news made. A lot of things that we have not heard him talk about. A lot of issues that he has not been pushed [on] because when people are travelling aboard his plane or he’s going to a rally, it’s something very different,” Haberman said. “And so how it all plays for his team, and they’re feeling good that they’re getting cheers, is very different than what it might play out.”

“Kaitlan was like a matador against the biggest bull in American history. And I think she put a lot of knives in that are going to pay off later on in terms of getting him to say stuff that he had not actually said on the record before, I think that’s very important,” Jones added.

“Yeah, but with Maggie’s point ... Republicans got what they needed out of this – Trump ... he’s tough, pugilistic. People like the base like to see that,” Urban noted. “He’s in there mixing up with the media again. Not a friendly environment for Donald Trump to come back to CNN. I kind of joked that you would never see Joe Biden wading into Fox News, a debate...”

“I don’t think that’s a fair comparison,” Harlow said.

Mr Jones noted that the audience for Mr Trump’s CNN appearance was “friendly”.

“I also think you can’t get a more objective journalist and interviewer than Kaitlan Collins,” Harlow added.

“Kaitlan did a great job. I’m just saying that Biden is not going to, he’s not going to stand up and do that. I would love to see him take questions,” Urban said.

“But with whom? Sean Hannity?” Haberman pressed.

Trump defames E Jean Carroll again in vicious attack at CNN town hall a day after $5m sex abuse trial verdict

Thursday 11 May 2023 23:00 , Sravasti Dasgupta

Donald Trump used his platform on CNN to lash out at E Jean Carroll just a day after a jury found that he had sexually abused and defamed the former journalist.

Ms Carroll, 79, sued the former president for raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 1996, and then “destroying” her reputation when he claimed she was lying.

The jury didn’t find Mr Trump liable of raping Ms Carroll, but it found the one-time president more likely than not sexually abused Ms Carroll.

Mr Trump was also found liable for defamation and awarded her a total of $5m.

The twice-impeached president mocked Ms Carroll at the CNN town hall that aired just a day after the verdict.

Read more:

Trump defames E Jean Carroll again at CNN town hall hours after $5m trial verdict

Impossible task or journalism fail? Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s rising star who faced Trump and lost

Thursday 11 May 2023 22:30 , Oliver O’Connell

A journalist who was once banned from a White House event for asking awkward questions about Vladimir Putin has moderated an event featuring a man facing legal jeopardy who lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, in a town hall aired on the cable news network he blamed for publishing fake news.

We’re talking about CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and Donald Trump, who of course wants to be president once again, in his first time back on the news network he has spent years disparaging.

On Wednesday night, the pair broadcast from a New Hampshire liberal arts college, where Mr Trump faced questions from Collins and an audience of 400 Republican and centrist voters during primetime on CNN.

Collins became known to most in her previous role as CNN’s White House correspondent. She delivered breaking news from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a commanding, confident tone throughout the Trump presidency, fast becoming a familiar face onscreen and known as a political authority.

Born in Alabama to a family she has previously described as “apolitical”, Collins graduated from Alabama University in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, moving into the field shortly afterwards.

Read more:

Kaitlan Collins: CNN’s rising star who went head-to-head with Trump

Trump to appeal E Jean Carroll $5m verdict after being found liable for sexual abuse

Thursday 11 May 2023 22:11 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump is appealing the verdict in the E Jean Carroll case after he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

Ms Carroll was awarded $5m earlier this month by the jury in the civil trial in Manhattan.

The appeal was filed not long after Judge Lewis Kaplan entered the judgement in the case, according to CNN.

Ms Carroll, an author and magazine journalist, claimed in the trial that Mr Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Berghof Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.

Mr Trump has consistently denied the allegation.

Read more:

Trump to appeal E Jean Carroll verdict

‘Shameful’: AOC blasts CNN’s controversial Trump town hall

Thursday 11 May 2023 22:00 , Graeme Massie

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted CNN’s controversial Donald Trump town hall as “shameful” as the former president used the live event to push “rigged” election lies and baseless conspiracy theories.

“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 Democratic lawmaker from New York tweeted.

“The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host. 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.”

The event took place in front of an audience of 400 Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters in New Hampshire on Wednesday night.

Read more:

AOC blasts CNN’s Trump town hall as she brands it ‘shameful’

US warns migrants against illegal crossings as Title 42 set to expire: ‘Our border is not open’

Thursday 11 May 2023 21:30 , Andrew Feinberg

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday warned migrants that the end of pandemic-era border restrictions will not enable them to enter the United States by crossing the US-Mexico border.

Mr Mayorkas appeared at the daily White House press briefing to explain the Biden administration’s preparations for the end of Title 42 – a Trump-era public health restriction which allowed most asylum seekers to be quickly turned back – and stressed that despite the end of the controversial policy, America’s borders “are not open”.

“If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subject to steeper consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year ban on reentry and potential criminal prosecution,” he said.

Mr Mayorkas told reporters the Biden administration has been preparing for the eventual end of Title 42 for the past two years, but he also said he and administration officials are “clear-eyed” about the challenge that will be posed by the large numbers of migrants who are expected to attempt to cross into the US in hopes of gaining asylum.

Read more:

US warns migrants against illegal crossings: ‘Our border is not open’

VIDEO: Santos chased by reporter as he returns to the Capitol

Thursday 11 May 2023 21:01 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump turned his liabilities into laugh lines at CNN town hall, underscoring GOP rivals' challenge

Thursday 11 May 2023 21:00 , AP

The Republicans in the audience laughed when former President Donald Trump mocked a woman who accused him of rape. They cheered when he defended his role during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And they applauded again after he said he was “honored” to “terminate Roe v. Wade.”

Trump’s defiant performance at the CNN town hall on Wednesday may ultimately hurt his standing with key groups of voters in next fall’s general election, especially women, suburbanites and independents. But the reaction of those who attended also demonstrated his extraordinary grip on the conservative voters who will soon decide the fight for the GOP presidential nomination.

The magnitude of the challenge ahead for Trump’s Republican rivals was clear as the former president repeatedly turned his greatest political liabilities into jokes and applause lines for the GOP base. On Thursday, a day after the town hall, Trump’s Republican critics conceded they don’t know how to stop him.

“GOP voters want what Trump gave them last night — the lies, the personal attacks... and the confrontation with the media,” said Sarah Longwell, founder of the anti-Trump Republican Accountability Project. “I think it was an important wakeup call that Trump is still the likeliest GOP nominee. It’s scary, but important we face it and do everything we can to keep him from becoming president again.”

The first votes of the GOP primary won’t be cast until early next year and the nomination itself won’t be formally decided until next summer. But early public polling suggests Trump is the overwhelming frontrunner. And so far, most of his primary opponents have been unable, or unwilling, to use his most egregious behavior against him for fear that such attacks could alienate the same conservative voters they hope to win over.

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Trump turned his liabilities into laugh lines at CNN town hall, underscoring GOP rivals' challenge

Trump may be sued again by E Jean Carroll after he called sexual abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

Thursday 11 May 2023 20:56 , Graeme Massie

E Jean Carroll says that she may sue Donald Trump again after the former president branded her sexual abuse claim against him “fake” and a “made up story” during a CNN town hall.

Mr Trump’s lashed out at Ms Carroll just one day after a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting her in the 1990s and ordered him to pay $5m in damages.

Ms Carroll, 79, sued the former president for raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 1996, and then “destroying” her reputation when he claimed she was lying.

The jury didn’t find Mr Trump liable of raping Ms Carroll, but it found the one-time president more likely than not sexually abused Ms Carroll.

During the CNN event on Wednesday evening, Mr Trump described her as a “whack job” and called the trial “rigged”.

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Carroll may sue Trump again after he called sex abuse claim ‘fake’ at CNN town hall

Trump calls police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt a ‘thug’ during CNN town hall

Thursday 11 May 2023 20:30 , Graig Graziosi

Donald Trump once again demonised the Capitol police who that shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt on 6 January, 2021.

During a much-maligned CNN town hall featuring the former president, Mr Trump called the officer, who is Black, a “thug.”

In addition, he falsely said that the officer bragged about killing Babbitt. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who moderated the town hall, pushed back on that claim.

Babbitt was a former member of the US Air Force and a Trump loyalist when she answered the then-president’s call to protest the 2020 election results in Washington DC.

She was wearing a Trump flag tied around her neck like a cape when she attempted to climb into the Capitol through a broken window. An officer inside the building shot and killed her.

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Trump calls police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt a ‘thug’ during CNN town hall

Indiana GOP Senator says he won’t support Trump for presidential nomination

Thursday 11 May 2023 20:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young told CNN that he’s not planning on supporting Mr Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024.

When asked why, he said: “Where do I begin?”

About Mr Trump not calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, he said: “I think President Trump’s judgment is wrong in this case. President Putin and his government have engaged in war crimes.”

“That’s why I don’t intend to support him for the Republican nomination,” he added.

He later added, according to HuffPost: “You want a nominee to win the general election. As President Trump says, I prefer winners. He consistently loses. In fact, he has a habit of losing not just his own elections, but losing elections for others.”

“I can’t think of someone worst equipped to bring people together... and advance our collective values than the former president. I don’t think conservatives would be well served by electing someone whose core competency seems to be owning someone on Twitter,” he added.

Mr Young didn’t answer when asked if he would support Mr Trump if he becomes the GOP presidential nominee.

“I don’t think he’ll be the nominee. Republicans are in a winning mood. We want to win. We know he’s the shortest path to losing,” he said.

VOICES: Disastrous Trump town hall begs the question: What was CNN thinking?

Thursday 11 May 2023 19:30 , Andrew Feinberg

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at CNN’s editorial meeting on Thursday.

What did they think would happen when they put Donald Trump and an audience of friendly supporters on live television for an hour and a half?

Did they think treating him like a normal candidate would lead him to act like a normal candidate?

Did they think making the moderator of the town hall a young, female reporter who once worked for the right-wing Daily Caller would lead him to treat her with respect even when she pointed out that he was blatantly lying on any number of topics?

Look, I get the reasoning behind offering Mr Trump a town hall appearance.

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Disastrous Trump town hall begs the question: What was CNN thinking?

CNN executive says ‘it was a GOP Primary Town Hall’

Thursday 11 May 2023 19:00 , Gustaf Kilander

CNN Worldwide Senior Vice President Matt Dornic tweeted on Thursday that the townhall with Donald Trump was “intended to be a one-hour event”.

“We were on record saying so with NPR, NYT, WaPo and others days before the event. We gave it room to bleed over some for editorial flexibility. It was ultimately just shy of 70 mins,” he added.

“It was a GOP Primary Town Hall, thus an audience of Republicans or undeclared voters expected to vote in the R primary. Polls suggest most Rs support DJT,” he wrote. “The audience was curated by CNN through community groups, student politics and government, faith groups, agriculture and education orgs, as well as R groups. The school and campaign also invited guests.”

CNN praises Kaitlan Collins’ ‘tough’ questioning at Trump town hall amid furious backlash at network

Thursday 11 May 2023 18:30 , Gustaf Kilander

CNN has praised Trump town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins as the network faced mounting criticism for giving a platform to the former president to share his many false claims.

“Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist,” CNN said in a statement.

“She asked tough, fair and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time, to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner. That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

Collins was also backed up by fellow CNN anchor Poppy Harlow, who criticised pro-Trump analyst David Urban for comparing the event to Joe Biden appearing on Fox News.

Harlow hosted CNN This Morning on Thursday alongside Phil Mattingly with panellists Mr Urban, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times and Van Jones.

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CNN praises Kaitlan Collins’ ‘tough’ questioning at Trump town hall amid backlash