CNN town hall with former President Donald Trump

By Tori B. Powell, Elise Hammond, Maureen Chowdhury and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 1927 GMT (0327 HKT) June 1, 2023

What we covered here

Former President Donald Trump once again refused to concede that he lost the 2020 election and repeated false claims about it being stolen at a CNN town hall where he took questions from New Hampshire GOP primary voters.
Trump also again deflected blame for the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and said that he would pardon many of the rioters who breached the Capitol that day.
Trump also took questions on the economy and policy issues, repeatedly declining to say whether he would sign a federal abortion ban if he won a second term. He also suggested Republicans should refuse to raise the debt limit if the White House does not agree to spending cuts. On foreign policy, Trump would not say whether he wants Ukraine or Russia to win the war when asked by CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
Trump has emerged as a frontrunner in the GOP field for president. The town hall came as Trump faces multiple legal challenges, including an indictment in New York over a hush money case and being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil case.

Our live coverage has ended. See CNN’s fact checks of the town hall and read more about the event in the posts below.

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9:44 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Fact check: Trump's claims about security on January 6

From CNN’s Zachary Cohen

Former President Donald Trump walks offstage during a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Will Lanzoni/CNN

Former President Donald Trump tried to blame then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the violence on January 6, 2021 – when his own supporters stormed the US Capitol, claiming she was “in charge” of security that day.

Facts First: This is false. The speaker of the House is not in charge of Capitol security. That’s the responsibility of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the US Capitol Police and approves requests for National Guard assistance.

Trump’s former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller also told lawmakers that he was never given a formal order by Trump to have 10,000 troops ready to be sent to the Capitol on January 6. “There was no direct, there was no order from the president,” Miller said.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent an email saying the National Guard would be present to “protect pro Trump people” in the lead up to the US Capitol insurrection, according to the report released by the January 6 committee.

9:50 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

In pictures: CNN's town hall with Donald Trump

From CNN's Will Lanzoni

Former President Donald Trump took the stage on Wednesday night for a CNN town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Trump once again refused to concede that he lost the 2020 election and repeated his false claims about it being stolen.

See photos from the evening inside the Koonz Theatre in the Dana Center for the Humanities at St. Anselm College:

Former President Donald Trump speaks to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during the town hall. Will Lanzoni/CNN

New Hampshire GOP primary voters listen to the town hall at St. Anselm College. Will Lanzoni/CNN

Trump holds notes of his tweets. The top of the page says, "SUSPENDED TWEETS (Now Restored on Twitter)." Will Lanzoni/CNN

The town hall took place in the Koonz Theatre in the Dana Center for the Humanities at St. Anselm College. Will Lanzoni/CNN

Trump gestures while answering a question. Will Lanzoni/CNN

Trump walks on stage at the start of the town hall. Will Lanzoni/CNN

11:19 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

"Do you want four more years of that?" Biden tweets after CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump

From CNN's Arlette Saenz

President Joe Biden tweeted out a fundraising appeal from his political account in the minutes after the end of CNN's town hall with former President Donald Trump.

9:29 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Fact check: What Trump said about intelligence agents and their impact on the 2020 election

From CNN’s Curt Devine

As part of his argument that the 2020 election was “rigged,” Donald Trump claimed 51 intelligence agents “made a 16-point difference” in the outcome of the election.

Facts First: There is no evidence for this.

Trump appears to have been referring to a letter signed by former intelligence agents weeks before the 2020 election. The letter stated that the release of emails purportedly belonging to then-candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter, which had been generating sensational stories in right-wing media, had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

No proof of Russian involvement in the release of those emails has emerged, and Republicans have argued that the letter helped discredit negative stories about the Biden family just before the election. But there’s also no proof that the letter swayed the outcome of the election.

9:32 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Trump justifies comments he made on "Access Hollywood" tape, says he won't take it back

Former President Donald Trump points to an audience member during the CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall in Manchester, New Hampshire. John Nowak/CNN

Former President Donald Trump said that he will not take back the comments he made on the “Access Hollywood” tape about being able to grab women.

The tape came up in Trump’s tape deposition as part of the civil case with writer E. Jean Carroll. A Manhattan federal jury found Tuesday that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation.

“There was a taped deposition of you from October, and you defended the comments you made on that 'Access Hollywood' tape about being able to grab women how you want. Do you stand by those comments?" CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked.

"I said women let you, I didn't say you grab… I said women let — you know, you didn't use that word — but if you look, women let you," Trump said. "Now, they said will you take that back? I said, look, for a million years this is the way it's been. I want to be honest this is the way it's been," he added.

"You would like me to take that back. I can't take it back because it happens to be true," Trump added.

12:51 a.m. ET, May 11, 2023

Trump says he would accept 2024 election results if he believes "it's an honest election"

Former President Donald Trump said he would accept the 2024 presidential results if he were the Republican nominee if he believes "it's an honest election."

"If I think it's an honest election I would be honored to," Trump said.

Pressed by CNN's Kaitlan Collins if he would accept the results regardless of the outcome, Trump reiterated, "If it's an honest election, correct, I will."

This comes after the former president repeated false claims that the 2020 election was rigged throughout Wednesday's CNN town hall.

9:25 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Trump says he had "every right" to take classified documents with him after leaving White House

Asked why he took classified documents with him after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump said he "had every right to under the Presidential Records Act."

"I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified," Trump said during Wednesday night's CNN town hall.

"I had every right to do it, I didn't make a secret of it. You know, the boxes were stationed outside the White House, people were taking pictures of it."

Collins corrected Trump saying the Presidential Records Act does not say a former president can take documents home but says they are the property of the federal government when a president is out of office.

After Trump and Collins went back and forth on previous presidents taking classified documents, Collins pushed back saying previous presidents didn't wait to return classified documents and asked numerous times why Trump waited to return classified documents when he knew the federal government was seeking them and subpoenaed him to return them.

Trump did not answer the question but instead insulted Collins.

"It's very simple — you're a nasty person, I'll tell you," Trump said.

More context: Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

The Justice Department investigation continues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office. A federal grand jury has interviewed potential witnesses regarding how Trump handled the documents.

The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, including some classified records.

Any unauthorized retention or destruction of White House documents could violate a criminal law that prohibits the removal or destruction of official government records, legal experts told CNN.

9:17 p.m. ET, May 10, 2023

Trump won't say whether he wants Russia or Ukraine to win war

Former President Donald Trump wouldn't say whether or not he wants Russia or Ukraine to win the war when pressed by CNN's Kaitlan Collins Wednesday in the town hall.

"I don't think in terms of winning and losing. I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people," he said.

When asked by Collins for a second time whether or not the former president wants Ukraine to win, Trump still would not answer directly, instead saying that he wants "everybody to stop dying."

"Russians and Ukrainians, I want them to stop dying," he said. "And I'll have that done in 24 hours."

Collins pressed her question for a third time, to which Trump replied, "I'll say this: I want Europe to put up more money."

He called on Europe to "equalize."

"They have plenty of money," he said.

12:43 a.m. ET, May 11, 2023

Trump won't say if he believes Putin is a war criminal but does claim he "made a mistake" going in Ukraine

Former President Donald Trump gestures during a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall. Will Lanzoni/CNN

Former President Donald Trump would not say if he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal in the context of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Trump said that is something that "should be discussed later."

"If you say he's a war criminal it's going to be a lot tougher to make a deal to get this thing stopped," he said. "If he's going to be a war criminal, people are going to grab him and execute him, he's going to fight a lot harder than he's fighting under the other circumstance. That's something to be discussed at a later day.”

The former president also said he thinks that "Putin made a mistake."

When asked to elaborate, Trump said, "His mistake was going in. He would have never gone in if I was president," referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.