CNN town hall with former President Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump again refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 presidential election, instead reiterating false claims that the election was rigged.

Trump, speaking at a CNN town hall in front of New Hampshire voters Wednesday night, repeated false claims of election fraud.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins pressed the former president, asking directly if he would publically acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election. Collins pointed out that the election wasn't rigged, and pointed to statements by Trump's own election officials noting the election was conducted fairly.

"It was not a rigged election. It was not a stolen election. You and your supporters lost more than 60 court cases on the election. It's been nearly two and a half years. Can you publicly acknowledge that you did lose the 2020 election?" she said.

Trump did not directly answer the question.

"They found millions of votes on camera, on government cameras, where they were stuffing ballot boxes. So with all of that, I think it's a shame what happened. I think it's a very sad thing for our country. I think it's a very sad thing, frankly, for the world, because if you look at what's gotten to our country, our country has gone to hell," Trump said, continuing on to criticize the Biden administration.

CNN's town hall with Donald Trump is underway in New Hampshire and the former president will take questions from Republicans and undeclared voters as the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary field.

“CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins is moderating. This is Trump’s first appearance on CNN since the 2016 election.

New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation GOP primary, is also home to many swing voters. Trump handily won the primaries there in 2016 and 2020 before losing the state in both general elections.

He is facing voters the day after a Manhattan federal jury found the former president sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and called the verdict in the civil case a “total disgrace.”

Last month in New York, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump also faces potential legal peril in both Washington, DC – where a special counsel is leading a pair of investigations – and in Georgia, where the Fulton County district attorney plans to announce charges this summer from the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State.

The town hall is streaming live without requiring a cable log-in, on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, on CNN OTT and mobile apps under “TV Channels,” or CNNgo where available.

The town hall will also be available On Demand beginning Thursday, May 11, to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, the CNN OTT app, and Cable Operator Platforms.

CNN's Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.

There’s a definite feel at Saint Anselm College that the 2024 presidential campaign is really beginning tonight. There’s excitement, tension and dissent in the air that recalls the build-up to a presidential debate. 

The fact that the unpredictable Donald Trump is the presidential frontrunner after a tumultuous presidency and refusal to accept the result of the 2020 election is only deepening the feeling that something big is about to happen – as town hall attendees line up to clear Secret Service security checks near protesters shouting anti-Trump slogans.

Many of the registered Republicans and voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP primary are hoping they will get called upon.

One Trump supporter, Karen Langella, said that she hoped that the questions would “not focus on what happened” on Tuesday when a jury found Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996 in New York and that he was liable for battery and defamation after a civil trial.

Langella’s daughter, Isabella, who is an independent and shopping around for the most conservative Republican candidate, hoped that “people stick to his ideas and his policies instead of what happened 20 years ago.”

Another attendee, Al Peel, hoped to get a question to Trump about his own ideas on how to help homeless veterans. He also wanted the former president to tone down his wild antics and focus instead on policies.

“I think he’s Bozo the Clown, OK. But I love his results," he added.

Across the road, a crowd of students held up signs reading “love Trumps hate” and “nobody is above the law,” while chanting “You’re abhorrent, you’re broke, you lost the popular vote.”

More about the town hall location: Saint Anselm College has its own fabled history in presidential campaigns. Republican Richard Nixon made it his first stop in his successful 1968 bid for the presidency. Pretty much every one who is anyone in presidential politics has visited — from Ronald Reagan, both presidents Bush, Trump and Bernie Sanders.

The Benedictine liberal arts college hosted a fiery Democratic presidential debate days before the 2008 primary that saw Hillary Clinton win a comeback victory after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses — though it was a false dawn for the then New York senator’s campaign.

It’s been nearly eight years since he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower and more than two years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection, but the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump has never been more intense.

In New York, a hush money payment to an adult film star has resulted in his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in the scheme — the first time in American history that a current or former president faces criminal charges.

Also in Manhattan, a federal jury just yesterday found Trump sexually abused former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and awarded her about $5 million in the battery and defamation civil case.

In Atlanta, a select grand jury has investigated the efforts by Trump and allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia in 2020.

In Washington, a Justice Department special counsel is looking at the 2020 election aftermath and the removal of presidential documents to Florida.

Trump and his company deny any wrongdoing or criminality in all matters, state and federal, and he has aggressively maintained his innocence.

Here’s an updated list of notable investigations, lawsuits and controversies the former president faces.

It’s long been known that former President Donald Trump’s actions while in office have upended the norms of the presidency — from his use of social media to make major announcements to his use of the pardon power to the amount of turnover in his administration.

The story of the Trump presidency cannot be fully told in numbers. But here are some numbers illustrate some of the many ways Trump and his administration defied the status quo of the executive branch.

Judicial appointments: Trump was able to successfully appoint three US Supreme Court justices, and he’s surpassed the number of federal judges appointed by George H.W. Bush — the most recent one-term president.

Earlier in 2020, Trump was also on track to appoint more federal appellate judges than any recent president at the same point in his presidency, according to the Pew Research Center. Although Trump served only four years, his changes to the makeup of federal courts will be felt long after he leaves the White House.

Executive action: As of December 11, 2020, there had been 520 presidential documents signed by Trump — including executive orders, presidential memorandums, determinations and notices — had been published in the Federal Register. Of those, 288 were executive orders and presidential memorandums, not including memos were clerical in nature.

Presidents have increasingly used executive orders and presidential memorandums interchangeably to issue directives to their agencies; they are both legally binding, though executive action can be undone by the next president.

The increased reliance on such actions has come as an increasingly gridlocked Congress has made it difficult for presidents to act on their agendas.

Obama had issued 226 executive orders and memorandums at this point in his tenure in office, while George W. Bush had signed 189.

Before becoming president, Trump complained about what he saw as Obama’s overuse of executive authority but also suggested that the government could be run like a business.

Yet Trump has already exceeded both George W. Bush and Obama in the number of published executive orders and memorandums.

Read about other key figures from his presidency here.

Former President Donald Trump is set to participate in a CNN town hall soon in New Hampshire, where he’ll take questions as the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary field.

The event will be moderated by “CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins.

The town hall will stream live without requiring a cable log-in, on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, on CNN OTT and mobile apps under “TV Channels,” or CNNgo where available.

The town hall will also be available On Demand beginning Thursday, May 11, to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, the CNN OTT app, and Cable Operator Platforms.

Donald Trump’s presidency was largely defined by his disregard for political norms and his historic two impeachments.

Trump purposefully sought to upend conventional domestic and foreign policy, fundamentally altering America’s role in the world. And he disrupted the status quo in Washington, recalibrating the federal government’s role in everyday American life in ways both temporary and for a longer term effect.

Some of Trump’s most consequential decisions, such as his judicial appointments, will dictate the ideological make-up of the courts for decades. And the physical reminder of his immigration and border security policies, in the form of a US-Mexico border wall, have remained etched into America’s landscape well past his presidency.

Other actions, including many issued through the use of executive authority, can be undone through the regulatory process or with the flick of Joe Biden’s pen. Still, those actions will have sometimes had a years-long impact on American lives, affecting everything from their jobs to their schools to the kinds of lightbulbs they can buy.

Read through some of the most significant ways Trump’s policies and actions changed the country here.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is planning an “aggressive” rapid response effort for former President Donald Trump’s town hall with CNN tonight, a DNC official tells CNN.

The DNC is setting up an in-person “war room” rapid response operation to fact check the former president in real time, the official said. This will include news releases and tweets released through at least two Twitter accounts — @DNCWarRoom and @TheDemocrats.

The official said this will mark the DNC’s most aggressive posture to date in responding to any of the GOP contenders with preparations beginning as soon as the town hall was announced.

The DNC released a video on Twitter earlier today outlining elements of Trump’s record, including “embracing insurrectionists” and “attacking women’s rights.”  

President Joe Biden for his part is attending fundraisers in New York City Thursday evening and scheduled to be traveling for most of the town hall.

The verdict on Tuesday in E. Jean Carroll's case against Donald Trump has no legal effect on his 2024 presidential candidacy.

For one, it is a civil case, and during the 2016 campaign, Trump also faced all sorts of civil action, like the fraud cases concerning Trump University. Those were settled shortly after he was elected and had no bearing on the requirements for the presidency laid out in the Constitution.

Trump also faces unrelated criminal exposure, most prominently in the case that Manhattan prosecutors have brought against him for hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed the two had an extramarital affair (Trump denies the claim).

There are also federal criminal investigations — one concerning the mishandling of documents from his White House and another into the efforts to disrupt Congress’ 2020 election certification — are also encircling him, as is an Atlanta-based probe into the election subversion plots.

Similarly, a successful criminal prosecution of the former president is unlikely to affect, at least from a legal standpoint, his ability to be reelected to the White House.

Notably, there is a precedent for convicted felons to run for federal office — including for the office of the presidency.

Eugene Debs, a perennial socialist candidate for the White House in the early 20th century, was incarcerated on an espionage conviction when he won more than 900,000 votes in a 1920 presidential campaign.