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Why CNN’s Trump Town Hall Was a Disgrace — And an Insult to Democracy

That Was a Poisonous Taste of Authoritarianism — When the Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher

umair haque
Eudaimonia and Co
11 min readMay 11, 2023

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Image Credit: MwanzoTV via PBS

Everyone sane warned: this is a bad, bad idea. And somehow, it turned out to be hellishly worse than that. CNN’s “Town Hall,” with Donald Trump. Did you watch it? By now, you’ve surely heard about the fallout. To say people are angry, revolted, horrified, and disgusted would be an understatement. It was an event that will live in infamy, as it should — because what sane minds feared was exactly what happened. Democracy — that most fragile and precious of gifts — was eviscerated, in a public, ritual slaughter.

Maybe you think I exaggerate, so let’s recount what did actually happen. From the very first moment, Trump began to do what he does best. Tell Big Lies. The election was stolen. Jan 6th didn’t really happen. On and on they went. He trampled Kaitlan Collins, who could barely get a word in edgewise, so fast and hard did the lies come. But then? It got so, so much worse. Trump began making fun of his…sexual assault victim. The audience laughed. He went right back to open bigotry. The audience cheered. He attacked Collins, snarling that she was a nasty woman. The audience laughed and cheered.

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