Washington Week with The Atlantic

CNN courted controversy and fierce debate this week after former President Donald Trump headlined its latest live primetime town hall, Trump's first of the 2024 election cycle.

Despite Moderator Kaitlan Collins' best efforts to fact-check Mr. Trump in real-time, he used questions from her and an audience of Republican New Hampshire voters to repeat many of his familiar false claims.

Some of their exchanges, like this one about the 2024 election results, revealed Trumps willingness to undermine the nation's election integrity.

Kaitlan Collins, Anchor, CNN: Will you commit to accepting the results of the election regardless of the outcome?

Donald Trump: Do you want me to answer it again?

If I think it is an honest election, I would be honored to.

Kaitlan Collins: But no commitment on accepting the results regardless of the outcome?

Donald Trump: If it is an honest election, correct, I will.

Kaitlan Collins: Okay.

So, not committing to accepting the 2024 election results.

Laura Barron-Lopez: I think all of us here tonight can agree that no one says we should not cover the former president.

But media outlets, Dan are re-evaluating how to cover the former president.

What do you think our role, the press plays, in defending democracy?

Dan Balz: Well, we play an important role.

We are protected by the First Amendment to hold government to account and to hold government officials to account, and part of that is protecting democratic institutions.

I think the challenge with President Trump, and I think that what happened on Wednesday night was unfortunate, was that it was as though we unlearned the lessons that we thought we had learned from 2016 and 2020 and his time in the White House.

Yes, he is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination.

That means we have to cover him in some way or another.

But I thought that this event elevated him in ways that was unnecessary, particularly at this point in the cycle.

We are in May 2023.

And I thought CNN gave him more of a platform than they needed to do, and with a format that, in essence, favors the candidate rather than Kaitlan Collins, who did a very -- had a very tough job and worked at it throughout the 70 minutes of it.

My own view is on this that we need to be quite restrained in the way we approach Trump's candidacy, that we do not treat any event like a big event.

We have been successful on that for many of his rallies.

We don't cover the rallies in the way we did before.

But I think, again, what happened on Wednesday night as a reminder that he is a different kind of candidate than we have ever dealt with before and that his anti-democratic views are ones that we have to, A, be aware of, continue to bring to the forefront of people, and also not give him undue attention to talk about that.

Laura Barron-Lopez: The debate right now among some of our colleagues is -- I mean, they are saying we covered Trump but maybe we don't give him a live platform or carry his rallies live, as you just said, Dan.

Ali, what do you think of that?

Ali Vitali: The live piece of it, I think, is the part of the format that we are seeing the most criticism for.

Because you are right, all of us have been to Trump rallies, I've been going to them since 2015.

We all know what they are.

This was a Trump rally in a different format with someone prompting him along as topics changed.

I think also the fact that you had a crowd cheering and laughing along with him made it feel more like a rally format.

And I also think it's important, I couldn't stop thinking about this when I was watching.

The fact that one day before he got on that stage, a jury of his peers found him liable for sexual abuse and he went on that stage and he mocked that woman.

And it took me back to 2016 when more than a dozen women made credible sexual harassment or assault allegations against him and he went onstage and said everything from they are not my type, I would not do that, and made fun of them and mocked them.

And it really felt like time was a little bit of a flat circle in that moment, but people have this already baked into the Donald Trump cake.

And lawmakers did not necessarily feel a lot of pressure this week to distance themselves from him on it.

There were some who even said it made them want to vote for him even more.

I don't how that is logical at all.

But at the same time, I think this is already in voters' minds.

But we should not let that be as stunning as it actually is.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Zolan, the former president did make some policy news.

What stood out to you that night?

Zolan Kanno-Youngs: A couple of things.

I mean, I think much of what he said up there was kind of something we have come to expect.

But I still think it was jarring and newsworthy that he could not say whether or not he wanted Russia or Ukraine to win that war.

I mean, you ask public officials in this town about that response today.

That's been something that they had been are reacting to, where currently there has already been some questions that have come from members of Congress about the future of U.S. aid when it comes to Ukraine.

We know that President Biden thus far has done a job of uniting the west in terms of against Russia as well as maintaining some support for that aid, but that was something that definitely stood out, as well as him dodging questions on abortion as well.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Well, you just made my transition for me, Zolan.

Because, Ron, you said that the former president's abortion comments were the most significant that night.

Why?

Ron Brownstein: Yes.

I don't think it was entirely a dodge.

I think he gave us a very clear indication.

He said twice he was honored to have played the role -- played a critical role in ending Roe.

In fact, he kind of did the I alone can fix it when he said I was able to terminate Roe after 50 years of trying.

And he said that gave the pro-life side the leverage it needs to pass a national law that would satisfy pro-lifers in the end.

And I think that was about as clear an indication.

All that he didn't do was dot the I and cross the T and say how many weeks of a national abortion ban then that he would sign.

But I think he left no question that he would sign a national abortion ban.

And even beyond that, him, that sound bite of saying, I was able to terminate Roe, he took credit for ending a constitutional right that 60 percent of Americans wanted to keep in place.

And if you are in the suburbs of Milwaukee or Madison or Detroit or Las Vegas or Phoenix or Atlanta and he is the Republican nominee, you are going to see that sound bite, I think, endlessly in 2024.

And that wasn't the only -- I mean, he said he would pardon most of the January 6th rioters, that he said he would restore the policy of separating kids from their parents at the border.

The justification, quickly, of the Trump team was that this is an attempt to reach to the middle, to go beyond the kind of the conservative news bubble.

He said a lot of things that would be challenging in the suburbs they have to win back if he is the nominee.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Dan, final thought on Trump.

I mean, do you think the Democrats are making a mistake because they think he is the most beatable candidate?

Dan Balz: Well, I think that there's a certain logic behind the idea that he is the likeliest of Republicans to be the nominee but I do also think that they believe he is more beatable perhaps than somebody else, although the others have got to prove their worth.

But I thought that coming out of that event, the most important thing was to remember that he is a different kind of person, a different kind of politician.

I agree with Ron that he made some statements that could be costly with different kinds of voters.

But the big question is what is his fitness for office a second time.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Certainly an abnormal candidate that we are all still learning how to cover.

But we have to leave it there for now.

So, thank you to my panel for joining us and for sharing your reporting.