An unrepentant Donald Trump he insisted on his familiar positions in his first television interview, in which he also took questions from the audience, broadcast by the television network CNN yesterday, Wednesday, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The interview, which lasted 70 minutes and took place in New Hampshire, was moderated by CNN anchor Caitlan Collins.

The Republican nominee took questions from the audience and challenged laughbut also applausewhen he dismissed a recent court ruling that found him guilty of sexual assault against E. Jean Carroll, when he repeated his baseless allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, and when he said he would pardon many of his supporters who were convicted of their involvement in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Answering questions from Collins and the audience gathered at Saint Anselm College, Trump made no attempt to appear more moderate in his views.

In fact, at one point he told the reporter who “interrupted” him to press him about a question about the much-vaunted investigation into classified documents found at his mansion, Trump didn’t hesitate to tell her “you’re a very bad person, I’m telling you ».

The attendees, voters of Republicans and independent voters who plan to vote in the GOP primary appeared to support Trump, giving him a standing ovation when he entered the room.

The New Hampshire is one of the first states to hold a primary and could prove critical to the Republican’s bid to return to the White House.

“I like Trump and what he stands for and now I like him even more,” said Joan Rushton, a former Democratic voter who now supports Trump, who was in the audience.

“very stupid”

When asked by the CNN anchor if he admits he lost the 2020 election, Trump repeated his baseless claims that he had fraud.

“It was a rigged election,” he estimated, adding that anyone who has a different opinion is “very stupid.”

“I think it’s a shame what happened. I think it is a very sad thing for our country. I think it’s a very sad thing for the world, frankly, because if you look at what happened in our country, our country has gone to hell,” he stressed.

Trump didn’t react at all when Collins asked him if he owed Vice President Mike Pence an apology for the riot he instigated against the Capitol when the latter was in the building.

He later added that he was considering pardoning “a large number” of those convicted of their involvement in the invasion.

“If you’re a star, women let you do whatever you want, even ‘grab them by the…'”

A jury on Tuesday found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting former columnist E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan store fitting room in the 1990s.

“What kind of woman meets someone and (…) within a few minutes they’re doing crazy things in a test room?”, Trump asked yesterday, in one of the insulting comments against Carroll.

At the same time, he played down her claims, which he called a “false story”, while he called her “crazy”.

He also defended one of his most infamous statements, which he made in 2005 on the show “Access Hollywood” and which were revealed just before the 2016 election, when he said that if you’re a star, women “let you do whatever you want “, even to “grab them by the…i”.

“You want me to take it back. I can’t take it back because it’s true. I said it’s something that’s been going on for a million years, about a million years, maybe a little bit longer,” the Republican commented.

“If you’re famous, if you’re a star — and I’m not talking about myself, I’m talking about people who are famous, people who are stars, people who are rich, people who are powerful — you tend to do pretty well in different areas,” he explained. .

When someone in the audience asked him what he would say to voters who believe he should be disqualified from the primaries after his conviction, Trump replied: “There aren’t many (voters) because my ratings just went up. They increased.”

Abortion and Ukraine

“The fact that we got rid of Roe v. Wade (the US Supreme Court decision that protected women’s constitutional right to abortion) was amazing for pro-lifers because it gave them something to bargain with.” , commented the Republican, who has not clarified his views on the issue of abortion.

“I happen to believe in exceptions,” he continued. “Mother’s life, rape, incest, as Ronald Reagan believed in exceptions.”

Trump declined to answer Collins’ repeated questions about who he thinks should win the war in Ukraine.

“Do you want Ukraine to win the war?” the presenter asked him.

“I don’t think in terms of winning and losing. I’m thinking about how it can be set up to stop all these people being killed,” he replied. “I want them all to stop dying,” he added.

In fact, Trump has claimed that he can end the war in 24 hours if he is re-elected president, although he did not explain how.