Opinion | Trump's town hall was a disaster for the GOP - The Washington Post
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Marc A. Thiessen 11, 2023 at 1:52 p.m.
If you are a Republican primary voter, ask yourself a simple question: Was Donald Trump's performance in his CNN town hall Wednesday night the ground on which you want to fight the 2024 election?
For most of the hour-long session, the former president barely mentioned President Biden. Instead, he spent his time denying the results of the "rigged" 2020 election; railing against "stupid people" who refuse to acknowledge his victory; promising to pardon "many" of those convicted of committing crimes on Jan. 6, 2021; calling the Capitol Police officer who shot a rioter while protecting members of Congress a "thug"; claiming that Mike Pence was not in any danger from the rioters and had the power as vice president to overturn the election results; defending his "perfect" phone call asking Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to "find 11,780 votes"; defending his Truth Social post calling for "termination" of the Constitution; justifying his own mishandling of classified information while claiming that Biden stored classified documents in D.C.'s Chinatown, "where they don't even speak English"; rehashing and justifying his "Access Hollywood" comments; and calling CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins a "nasty person."
With Title 42 migrant restrictions ending the next day, one would think Trump might have opened with an attack on Biden's disastrous border policies. But no, he was more than happy to spend the first half of the night talking about himself and his grievances. Granted, this is what Collins asked him about. But Trump could have said: I know you want to talk about the 2020 election and Jan. 6, but I'm here to talk about the 2024 election and the disasters Joe Biden has unleashed on our country.
He didn't. And don't think for a moment that Trump mistakenly took the bait. No, he wanted to focus on Jan. 6. He even brought props, pulling a sheet of paper out of his jacket pocket with his Jan. 6 tweets so he could read them aloud. He had prepared this as his opening.
A New Hampshire voter asked him, "Will you suspend polarizing talk of election fraud during your run for president?" He said yes, but then went on to spend most of his time talking about it anyway.
When he did venture into public policy, it was to say that he would restore family separations at the southern border ("When you say to a family that if you come, we're going to break you up, they don't come") and to urge Republicans to "do a default" on the national debt ("You might as well do it now because … you're going to default eventually anyway") — a catastrophic move that would give Biden the pretext to shift blame for his ruinous economic policies onto Republicans.
The whole thing was a three-alarm dumpster fire for the GOP.
Trump's performance must have elated his hardcore supporters. But they are not going to decide the 2024 election. The next president will almost certainly be chosen by a few hundred thousand swing voters in a handful of purple states.
Imagine that you are one of those swing voters, who liked Trump's policies but did not approve of his behavior in office, and this was your first sustained exposure to him since the 2020 election. Did this performance persuade you to return him to the Oval Office? Or were his rants and barrage of insults like fingernails on a chalkboard, reminding you of the behavior you detested but not so much the policies you liked?
This town hall should be a wake-up call for the GOP. Trump has not learned a thing from his 2020 defeat. He has not developed the message discipline he lacked as president. He has not figured out that the path to another term is not simply energizing his base with red meat, but expanding his base by convincing persuadable swing voters to support him. There was zero effort Wednesday night to win over anyone who is not already with him. Biden wants to deflect attention from his presidency and make the 2024 election a referendum on Trump — and so, apparently, does Trump.
But is that what Republican primary voters want? According to a new CBS News-YouGov poll, the GOP electorate is divided into three camps: 24 percent say they will consider only Trump, 27 percent are not considering Trump at all, and a 49 percent plurality say they are deciding between Trump and other candidates. That 49 percent holds the fate of the country in its hands. Those voters need to take a good, hard look at Trump's performance and decide whether this is really the man and the message they want to lead the Republican Party into battle in 2024.
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No wonder the gop is trying to change the subject!
LOL, although that picture should be reversed...
Trump probably enjoys it...
I'm dying here . . . lol
What's wrong?
You realized no one watches these dumbass videos on HD so now you have to pollute the main page with them?
Desperate
Dev isn't the desperate one here
... on topic. too bad...
So it's you that's desperate.
Is that what you are trying to say?
Maybe...
But still no one with intelligence watches them.
and deplorable
How would you know?
Like i said...
No one with intelligence watches them.
thanks for watching...
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just watch the lowlights, that level of bullshit and deflection can be found anywhere.
I like how trump criminally implicated himself, again...
put a microphone in front of that moron and stand back...
The damn gop will nominate Trump insuring that Biden easily wins his 2nd term!
People like the conservative operative that wrote this article are forgetting one big thing - Trump holds the fate of all elected Republican officials in red states. At his word, anyone who opposes him will be primaried in their next election, and more likely as not lose that election. There are only a handful of GOP elected officials nationally that could withstand a Trump endorsed primary challenger.
Instead of putting all the blame on Trump, the writer should be putting most of the blame on the morons that support him.
"Trump's performance must have elated his hardcore supporters. But they are not going to decide the 2024 election. The next president will almost certainly be chosen by a few hundred thousand swing voters in a handful of purple states."
Very true. The hard core Trumpster loons will not give it up. But their numbers continue to dwindle.
Trump won't win the nomination as saner heads begin to play out. Biden has zero chance to be reelected.
DeSantis is wisely keeping his head down low while Donald throws mud all around the Foggy Bottom pigpen
Lol ...... gaslight ..... red light ....... gaslight!
This article was written by a gop operative...
Out your MAGA bubble the townhall flopped!
Not a surprise.
He doesn’t want Trump to run and I can understand where he is coming from but the CNN townhall being a disaster?
That’s just TDS rearing it’s ugly head.
Nothing more.
Two of three Americans, non-Fascists, believe Trump's Townhall was a disgrace and a national embarrassment. Are you saying all those Americans are deranged,
Lol ..... non fascists?
I’d love to see that poll.
Please share.
LOL sure hope you're not holding your breath waiting on evidence of that...
jbb is pretty close if you consider that 25% to 35% of Americans are maga leaving 65% to 75% that are non-fascists.
Would love to know how you came up with those numbers. The numbers I find break down as follows :
US total population = 331,900,000
US Population 18 and older = 257,279,447
According to this, there are 36,910,987 registered Republicans.
From an NBC poll, 42% of registered Republicans identify as "MAGA" while 58% reject.
Overall the poll found that 17% of responents said they identify as "MAGA" Republicans.
So according to my math, 14,502,614 Republicans identify as "MAGA" Republicans.
My math doesn't seem to match up with yours. How did you come up with that number you quoted?
Then MAGA are an even smaller minority!
Everyone else thinks Trump is a disgrace...
Still not gonna share where you pulled the numbers in your post of 5.1.2 from?
Trump got 70 million votes. You say there are only 15 million MAGA. That means that appx 80 percent of those who voted for Trump are non-MAGA. I find that extremely hard to believe.
Where is his math wrong? You have to have more than just a feeling.
I googled “percentage of Americans that identify as maga”, some sources said 25% , some said 35%.
Do you think 80% of the people who voted for trump in 2020 were not "MAGA" ? I think that sounds ridiculous.
Snuffy didnt use bad math, but maybe he was working with bad numbers.
If it "flopped", as you say, why are we seeing left wing loon talking heads and twitter idiots tripping over themselves trying to get everyone to fire everyone else on CNN, including their new CEO, and bitching up a storm about CNN letting Trump on their sacred bubble called CNN?
What you will get...and have so far...is silence.
Because most Americans were appalled CNN broadcast Trump's Fascist gop rally!
I don't think there is an actual definition of what MAGA is. To some it is the extreme of the party and to others it just is another word for anyone that voted for donald.
A l liberal network and anchor interviewing a candidate is now a "fascist rally." [deleted]
No, CNN let Trump's Fascist rally go wild...
Care to share the source, any source, to support that claim? Or do you define most Americans as brainless Brandon supporters?
The Town Hall would of course be seen as a success by the die-hard MAGA types who believe whatever Trump says.
For those who can objectively review what he said and are willing to fact-check his claims, they should walk away with the opinion that Trump engaged in serial lying and that the allegations of wrongdoing are likely true (since his 'defense' on each count was a lie). I would hope that his behavior would dissuade them from even considering Trump as the GOP nominee. But I have lost quite a bit of faith in the electorate.
Impossible.
Mainly because there was NO Trump Fascist rally ever.
That is one crazy statement.
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I do believe that "fascist" is the most abused and misused word since "racist".
Funny how it seems like the very same people abuse both words regularly.
Fascism and Racism are MAGA's Twins!
Wrong.
Nah, like usual it’s just made up leftist bullshit.
No facts to back it up
Just a sad, hateful opinion.
Yep, that’s because it’s just the usual BS we get from that operation.
Lol .... most? How much is most?
Ready to back up your BS claims with unbiased facts?
C’mon man, step up or shut up.
No, racism and fascism are real things!
Still no backup from you. Sad but here, I’ll show you how it’s done.
Executive summary:
Liberal Totalitarianism and disinformation is now completely out of control. Led by basement Biden’s puppet masters and their Bidenettes.
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I would be shocked if anyone changed their mind about Donald after the CNN show. People are well aware of who and what he is. That makes all the outrage over it a little perplexing. Are the whiners that afraid of Donald winning that they feel the only way Joe can win is to completely silence Donald and hope people won't notice his name on the ballot come election day(assuming he is the nominee)?
I think people just dont like traitorous assholes.
You are assuming everyone defines traitorous asshole the same way you do. That would be an incorrect assumption, but go with it if it makes you feel better about choosing a geriatric brain dead lying sack of shit.
First of all, anyone who disagrees that Trump is an asshole needs their head examined.
Secondly, he tried to overthrow the US government, and I think that would fit anyone's definition of traitor - well maybe not the MAGA's.
The other night Trump was asked if would apologize to Mike Pence for putting his life in danger on Jan 6. Instead of answering the question Trump said that Pence should have sent the election back to the state legislatures. Pence had no authority to do that and Trump knew that at the time. But he wanted it anyway. Such an action would have taken away the votes of millions of people.
Traitor? That is one of the nicer things we can call him.
There is not one redeeming quality to be found in the former 'president' so I therefore feel there are no redeeming qualities to be found in the majority of his enablers/supporters and those who always defend the indefensible.
As I noted, the Trump supporters will never change. Anyone who continued to support Trump after his Big Lie campaign is blindly/stupidly in for the long haul.
His performance should, however, make it much easier for those on the fence to see the depth of dishonesty infused in his abysmal character.
You call people who oppose Trump "whiners"? Given your use of a derogatory term, do you want Trump to win the GOP nomination or are you a "whiner" too?
Further, you intimated that you understand that the D party has much to gain by Trump occupying the GOP nomination slot. So who are these "whiners"?
I get it. You don't like trump. But still, not everyone agrees with you. No matter how many names you call them or articles you post here.
I have a feeling that many of those people would say the same thing about someone who supports and covers for Biden and all his fuckups.
I am not sure there are that many people on the fence, nothing new was learned at this town hall and Donald is now a known commodity. It seems some people are focused on Trumps lack of character and ignore Bidens lack of ability to do the job. Seems many independents will have to choose between asshole and incompetent. Wonderful choices our major parties give us.
I call people who whine whiners. Look at the media after the CNN show. If that isn't whining I don't know what is.
No I didn't. I asked what the reason was that some dems want a possible nominee silenced. Based on the actions of some dems in the midterm primaries it does seem that would have no problem supporting Trump in the primaries because they feel Joe would be able to beat Trump easier than Ron. There are other dems that would rather see Ron nominated because they feel many Trump supporters would sit the election out. I am not going to pretend I know which is correct or how many dems are in each camp but it is interesting.
The redeeming quality that comes to mind is that he is not Biden. Funny that Biden is most likely President because he is not Trump.
We are discussing Trump.
There should not be many, but the electorate as a whole is not necessarily rational.
Meaningless response since you determine what is 'whining'. Do you hold that the Ds want Trump to be the GOP nominee?
Why would any D want Trump silenced? Do you think that his litany of lies helps or hurts him in the general election?
Trump's strength with his supporters is the common factor in both of your scenarios. Clearly, it is best for the D party to have MAGA support Trump. If they do then Trump is likely the nominee (good for the Ds). If they do and Trump is NOT the nominee then Trump will either run third party and split the GOP ticket (good for the Ds) or MAGA will simply pout and reduce the GOP turnout (good for the Ds).
Either way, Trump spouting his lies does not hurt him with the MAGA crowd but almost certainly hurts him with everyone else. That is good for the Ds no matter what.
But it sucks for the nation.
Meh...No different than you defining what is "wrongdoing".
Still haven't figured out what that word means, have you?
So, let's play your silly game.
Let's say you know what the word means (you don't)
What part of the town hall was "fascist"...in your definition?
Hardly, wrongdoing is well-defined: "illegal or dishonest behavior." and in extreme cases it is obvious.
For example, Trump lying to the world that the USA election was rigged is wrongdoing.
Do you not consider that wrongdoing?
A Trump supporter celebrating an hour of outrageous lying by Trump.
RDTC context of "whining" is correct in his comment.
You believe your definition of "wrongdoing" is complete and non argumentative.
It is not. Wrongdoing could have been a mistaken stance on something, not necessarily illegal or dishonest, as you dishonestly try to make it.
"Do you not consider that wrongdoing?"
Already answered it.
Not going down your forever rabbit hole
Again....your opinion.
Not important.
No according to how the word is defined in the English language. It is pretty pathetic when people have to stoop to redefining common English words.
If you consider it wrongdoing then why are you back here complaining?
Well of course it is my opinion.
And it is extremely obvious that you are celebrating Trump's lying. Pathetic.
Then you admit I am correct once again.
Thanks.
The rest is just an attempt to get me down a never ending rabbit hole. Not gonna happen.
You mean like "what is a woman?"
Yea...pathetic.
You came into this thread and initiated the 'rabbit hole'. If you do not want to deal with it then do not introduce it into a thread.
So you can't (or just won't) answer my question.
Seems to be a trend with "some" here.
We don't answer to hive minded drones
that talking pile of shit in the left chair...
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What is the question for which you must have an answer?
Does it matter?
BS..you answer leftist posts all the time.
I guess it depends on ones perspective in the town hall. If you were on stage looking out to the audience, the pile of shit on the left chair was the moderator/debator
So yea, you are right in this sense.
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they're all piles of shit
fascist and racist are 2 words that are overused and wore out .
Probably because the people misusing them are too stupid to know the difference.
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
spot on!
100% of Racists and Fascists agree with you...
See 5.1.32, apply liberally, lather, rinse, repeat as required .....
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Please link any place you got this 'info' from.
I would love to see some factual basis for making such a dumbass claim.
There IS a pretty big difference between WON'T and CAN'T.
It seems dumbass claims with no support are all some people have. That and PD&D of course
I'm going to buy popcorn for watching the newscasts about American politics. It's better than the movies, and you know how much I love the movies.