Ocasio-Cortez on Trump town hall: ‘CNN should be ashamed of themselves’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed CNN over its decision to hold a town hall with former President Trump Wednesday night.

“CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”

Trump doubled down on his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” suggested those who descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had “love in their heart,” and called author E. Jean Carroll a “whack job” at Wednesday’s town hall.

The former president’s comments come just one day after a jury found that he sexually abused Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by denying the allegations. Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store. 

“This falls squarely on CNN,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.”

In an appearance on MSNBC after the town hall, the congresswoman said Trump’s attacks on Carroll were “a continued demonstration” of the sacrifices that survivors of sexual abuse make to “come forward and challenge power.”

“What we also saw tonight was the consequence of doing that,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They sacrifice their anonymity, they sacrifice their safety, and they sacrifice all of this because we continue to live in a society where an overwhelming amount of structures allow this abuse to happen and find it permissible.”

“I think it was a profoundly irresponsible decision,” she added of the town hall. “I don’t think that I would be doing my job if I did not say that.”

CNN defended host Kaitlan Collins and the network’s decision to hold the town hall in a statement on Wednesday night.

“Tonight, Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist,” a spokesperson said. “She asked tough, fair and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner. That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

— Updated Wednesday, 11:36 a.m.