Former President Donald Trump made his way to New Hampshire on Wednesday evening for a town hall hosted by CNN. Moderated by Kaitlan Collins, the town hall went in a number of different directions as Trump commented on a number of topics, including abortion, election results and criminal justice. As the town hall continued to unfold, Collins asked the former President about a recent civil case that came to a close this week. A jury in New York found the former President liable for sexual abuse and defamation after former columnist E. Jean Carroll accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s. Despite the verdict, Trump not only denies the accusations levied against him, but he also claims that he does not know her.
“This is a fake story. Made-up story,” he said at one point.
“What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing hanky panky in a dressing room,” he added later on as the crowd laughed.
Outside of the town hall, many viewers were not laughing. In fact, former governor Chris Christie called Trump’s comments “ridiculous.”
“His response yesterday to me was ridiculous, that he didn’t even know the woman. I mean, you know, how many coincidences are we going to have here with Donald Trump, Brian?” Christie told Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday.
Heading into the 2024 Presidential Election, political strategists believe that the allegations levied against him will have an impact on his campaign.
“It certainly won’t help among the suburban women that were with Trump in 2016, but abandoned him in 2018, 2020 and 2022,” Arizona-based strategist Brian Seitchik said.
“Trump was able to justifiably portray the [Bragg] indictment as political. Will he be able to do the same here? That’s the key question for this week.”
