Donald Trump bashes E. Jean Carroll, repeats 2020 election lies in CNN town hall

A day after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll, Donald Trump lashed out at her and repeated lies about the 2020 election during a town hall hosted by CNN.

“I have no idea who the hell [she is],” Trump said of Carroll on Wednesday night. “She’s a whack job.”

Many audience members laughed as he sarcastically recounted Carroll’s account of the rape she said occurred in the mid-1990s.

“I swear on my children, which I never do, I have no idea who this woman [is] — this is a fake story, a made-up story,” said Trump, who was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million. He plans to appeal.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also continued his false assertion he lost a “rigged election” in 2020, which CNN’s host challenged.

He dismissed officials on his own team who said he lost the 2020 election as “people who were afraid to take on the issue.”

The town hall format allowed audience members in New Hampshire’s St. Anselm College to address Trump directly. One attendee asked him if he would end “polarizing” talk about rigged elections in his 2024 bid for the White House.

“If I see election fraud, I think I have an obligation to say it,” Trump said.

He also refused to say he’d accept the results of the upcoming contest.

Trump took a defensive tone over the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol by throngs of his supporters, a day that led to his historic second impeachment.

He called Jan. 6 “beautiful day” before saying “a large portion” of those convicted of storming the Capitol would be pardoned if he’s reelected.

“They were there proud, they were there with love in their hearts,” Trump asserted.

He got a round of applause after falsely claiming former Vice President Mike Pence could have and should have refused to certify President Biden’s victory.

Trump’s first impeachment, in 2019, came over his efforts to pressure Ukraine’s government to help him win the 2020 election.

Asked how he’d handle Russia’s war with Ukraine, Trump claimed, “If I were president, this would have never happened.”

“I’d have that war settled in one day — 24 hours,” he added, refusing the host’s request for specifics.

Asked if he wanted Ukraine to win the brutal conflict, Trump dodged the question. The same went for a question asking if he considered Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

“You’re a nasty person, I tell you,” Trump told Collins when she asked him about classified documents he took from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago, Fla., estate after leaving office.

“I don’t have anything,” he said, repeating claims that secret documents he was caught taking after his presidency were “automatically declassified.”

The town hall came as CNN’s ratings have struggled amid numerous changes at the anchor desk. Nielsen reports the cable news channel’s prime time ratings plummeted 61% in March. Former CBS executive Chris Licht took over the network last year, vowing programming would focus on “informing, not alarming our viewers,” according to a memo obtained by The Hill.

The network defended its decision to host Trump in a statement to the Daily News.

“President Trump is the Republican frontrunner, and our job despite his unique circumstances is to do what we do best,” CNN said. “Ask tough questions, follow up, and hold him accountable to give voters the information they need to sort through their choices. That is our role and our responsibility.”

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