(CNN) The 2024 presidential marketing campaign is simply starting, however former President Donald Trump made clear that his third bid for the White House will really feel very very like the primary two.
Could he cease mendacity concerning the 2020 election?
Did he remorse his position within the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021?
Would he try and stroll the road in a bid to win over average voters?
No and no. Emphatically no.
Trump is likely to be making an attempt a brand new tack on this marketing campaign, working what’s, to this point, a extra typical race with much less inner drama. But when pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the 76-year-outdated confirmed on Wednesday night time that he’s very a lot the identical particular person Americans got here to know in 2016, all through his 4 years in workplace, and within the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat.
During the town hall, the previous president talked up a possible debt default as a minor inconvenience, would not say if he’d again Ukraine over Russia within the warfare and spoke glowingly of his household separation coverage on the US border.
Notably, Trump refused to plant a flag within the sand on a possible federal abortion ban. He did, nonetheless, make various false claims about abortion being performed at “nine months.”
He repeated a lot of what he is stated beforehand. Trump blamed others for the January 6, 2021, riot on the US Capitol. He lied concerning the timeline of that day, suggesting he had referred to as for his supporters to face down sooner than he really did. And he once more criticized former Vice President Mike Pence for not making an attempt to overturn the election outcomes.
He smeared former journal columnist E. Jean Carroll, the day after a Manhattan federal jury discovered that Trump sexually abused her in 1996, and Trump repeated his notorious feedback from the “Access Hollywood” tape that emerged in 2016.
When he wasn’t calling ladies names, airing outdated grievances or making an attempt to rewrite historical past, the previous president largely dodged questions and observe-up inquiries from Collins, saying he was “looking at” his choices, with out committing to something particularly.
Unsurprisingly, the largely Trump-loyal viewers lapped it up. Trump’s place within the GOP main polls, as he typically talked about, is robust. In New Hampshire on Wednesday night time, he confirmed why.
Here are 8 takeaways from Trump’s CNN town hall:
Trump makes dismissive feedback about Carroll
Somewhat greater than 24 hours after a jury discovered Trump accountable for sexually abusing and defaming author E. Jean Carroll, and awarded her $5 million, the previous president denied the accusations and once more stated he had by no means met Carroll.
“This woman, I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is,” Trump stated, earlier than going off on an odd tangent about her former husband and a pet.
Trump additionally dismissed a query over whether or not the decision would damage his standing with feminine voters, saying he doubted it. The response from the Trump-friendly viewers appeared to help his opinion — they laughed at his jokes and different dismissive feedback about Carroll.
While the jury discovered that Trump sexually abused Carroll, enough to carry him accountable for battery, they didn’t discover that Carroll proved he raped her — a distinction Trump was fast to level out.
Carroll filed the lawsuit final November beneath the New York State Adult Survivors Act, a state invoice that allowed renewed consideration of sexual assault allegations that will beforehand have been mooted by the statute of limitations.
Trump says GOP must be prepared to explode debt ceiling
The US is on the point of a catastrophic default on its sovereign debt. Asked what his recommendation is to Republicans in Washington, Trump was clear.
“If they don’t give you massive cuts,” he stated, “you’re going to have to do a default.”
Trump predicted that Democrats would “cave” within the present negotiations, however insisted that default could be preferable to a end result that does not cease the federal government “spending money like drunken sailors.”
The US hit the debt ceiling set by Congress in January. That compelled the Treasury Department to start taking so-referred to as extraordinary measures to maintain the federal government paying its payments. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen just lately warned that the US may default on its obligations as quickly as June 1 if Congress does not deal with the debt restrict.
A default would get rid of thousands and thousands of jobs, with generational wealth worn out, Moody’s Analytics has warned. The impression may embrace a delay in Social Security funds, late paychecks for federal staff and veterans.
Trump is obscure on federal abortion ban
Trump repeatedly ducked questions on whether or not he would signal into legislation a federal abortion ban, in addition to after what number of weeks right into a being pregnant abortion must be made unlawful.
He touted the Supreme Court’s resolution final 12 months to overturn Roe v. Wade’s federal abortion rights as “such a great victory” — and one made doable by his appointment of three conservative justices.
But Trump additionally acknowledged splits inside the GOP over whether or not to impose a federal abortion ban, and what the situations of such a ban must be. Democrats have gained statewide referendums, judicial races and extra whereas emphasizing their help for abortion rights within the wake of the Supreme Court’s resolution.
Trump stated he helps exemptions to abortion bans for instances of rape, incest and when the lifetime of the mom is threatened.
“We now have a great negotiating ability, and I think we’re going to be able to get something done,” Trump stated.
Trump does not say if he would again Ukraine in warfare with Russia
Trump refused to say whether or not he needed Ukraine to prevail in its warfare with invading Russia.
“I don’t think in terms of winning and losing,” he stated, “I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people.”
Asked to decide on a facet he would favor to win, Trump once more demurred. “I want everyone to stop dying,” he stated earlier than promising to finish the warfare in “24 hours.”
Ultimately, Trump fell again on two acquainted subjects: demanding Europe “put up more money” in help of Western objectives and talking meekly about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“He made a tremendous mistake” Trump stated of Putin, earlier than including, “He is a smart guy.”
The mistake, Trump stated, “was going in” to Ukraine — one thing, the previous president added, that will not have occurred if he have been nonetheless within the White House.
Trump says he’d pardon January 6 rioters
Trump demonstrated no regret for his position within the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.
Asked about former Vice President Mike Pence’s claims that Trump’s actions put his household’s lives at risk, Trump stated he doesn’t owe Pence an apology — and blamed his former vice chairman for his ceremonial position in counting Electoral College votes.
“No, because he did something wrong. He should have put the votes back to the state legislature,” Trump stated, wrongly insisting that Pence had the authorized authority to reject some states’ electoral votes.
Trump additionally stated he was “inclined to pardon” most of the pro-Trump rioters who have been convicted for his or her roles within the assault on the Capitol.
He stated he will not be capable of pardon “every single one” however stated “it will be a large portion of them.”
And he criticized the US Capitol Police officer who shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was making an attempt to crawl by means of a damaged window resulting in the House Speaker’s Lobby.
Trump suggests household separation immigration coverage may return
Trump stated he would return to one of many harshest immigration enforcement insurance policies imposed by his administration: separating migrant households on the US-Mexico border.
The “zero tolerance” coverage encapsulated the lengths Trump’s administration was prepared to go to discourage migrants from coming to the United States, and Trump stated it remained a powerful deterrent.
“When you say to a family that if you come, we’re going to break you up, they don’t come,” Trump stated.
His feedback include Title 42, the Trump-era pandemic public well being restriction that grew to become a key device officers used to expel migrants on the US-Mexico border, set to run out Thursday.
Trump repeats election fraud lies
As he has at nearly each cease since leaving workplace, Trump repeated his lies about widespread fraud within the 2020 presidential election.
He additionally wouldn’t decide to accepting the outcomes of the 2024 presidential election, saying he would solely achieve this “if I think it’s an honest election.”
Collins identified that Republican state elections officers in Georgia and elsewhere had refuted Trump’s falsehoods, and that Trump and his supporters misplaced dozens of lawsuits over the 2020 race. But Trump deflected, repeating debunked claims about fraudulent votes.
“I think it’s a shame what happened. I think it’s a very sad thing for our country,” Trump stated.
Trump makes use of similar identify-calling ways
Trump stored up his lengthy behavior of identify-calling Wednesday night time.
Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “a crazy woman.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 GOP presidential main rival, is “DeSantimonious.” Pence, who rejected Trump’s urging to attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, is “the human conveyor belt.” The US Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Babbitt is a “thug.” (The rioters, in the meantime, have been “great people.”) Carroll, in Trump’s telling, is a “whack job.” And when Collins pressed Trump about paperwork he took from the White House, he stated: “You’re a nasty person.”
The jabs are customary fare for Trump, who en path to the GOP nomination in 2016 branded rivals with nicknames. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was “low energy.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was “Lyin’ Ted.” And when then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly pressed Trump on his historical past of insulting ladies in a 2015 debate, Trump falsely said of Kelly: “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
