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‘You have every right to be outraged’: CNN's Cooper defends Trump townhall
Donald Trump CNN townhall: In his first interview on CNN since 2016, Trump refused to concede his 2020 election loss.
News outlet CNN's journalist Anderson Cooper in his opening monologue, addressed the backlash over the network’s decision to host a town hall with former US President Donald Trump.
Read here: CNN faces backlash for hosting "ugly spectacle" town hall with former President Trump
While defending the decision, Cooper said, "Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions and predictably, continued to spew lie after lie after lie. And I get it. It was disturbing.”
"You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away”, he added.
On Thursday, Trump had a 70-minute question-and-answer session with Republicans and voters in the CNN's townhall in US' New Hampshire. The event, moderated by Kaitlan Collins, saw Trump repeatedly spewing out falsehoods and attacking his critics, including writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found liable for defaming.
In his first interview on CNN since 2016, Trump refused to concede his 2020 election loss and refused to comment on January 6 Capitol riots and his legal issues.
He even labelled the moderator as a “nasty person” at the end of a town hall when she asked him why he did not comply with a Justice Department subpoena for classified records he took to Mar-A-Lago. He replied, “It’s very simple to answer. You’re a nasty person, I tell ya.”
The interview came after a federal court in New York found Donald Trump liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll and defaming her.
