Trump calls interviewer a 'nasty person' and lashes out at sex abuse accuser in tempestuous town hall meeting
11 May 2023, 05:54 | Updated: 11 May 2023, 09:01
Donald Trump has lashed out at his accuser E Jean Carroll and branded a female CNN interviewer a "nasty person" in a tempestuous town hall meeting.
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The ex-president, who was found liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll in a civil trial this week, accused her of "hanky panky" and called her a "whack job" for her rape accusations against him.
He again insisted he did not know her then attacked the case's judge for not letting jurors hear she "called her husband an ape" or that her "cat was named 'Vagina'".
Mr Trump was cheered at the town hall meeting of Republican and independent voters in St Anselm College, New Hampshire, as he said he would pardon the January 6 rioters and used nicknames for opponents like Nancy Pelosi and Republican rival Ron DeSantis.
The 76-year-old even branded CNN's Kaitlan Collins "a nasty person" as the two clashed over his keeping of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
"Can I talk? Can I answer the question?" he asked.
"I want you to answer the question, that’s why I asked it," Ms Collins replied.
"You're a nasty person," Mr Trump said.
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Having been ordered to pay £5m to Ms Carroll, he denied his popularity would be dented by this week's court case.
"My poll numbers just came out – they went up," he said, though he did not elaborate on which poll this was.
He again insisted he had "no idea who [Ms Carroll] is" and added: "I swear on my children."
He mocked her claims that he attacked her in a New York department store, saying: "What kind of a woman meets somebody and within minutes you're playing hanky-panky in a dressing room?"
He said of the case: "We had a horrible Clinton-appointed judge, who was horrible."
Mr Trump again denied he lost to Joe Biden in 2020, repeating baseless claims that the election was stolen from him.
Trump asked if he stands by comments from 'Access Hollywood' tape. Hear his response
"I think that when you look at that result and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you're a very stupid person, you see what a lot of the people in this audience and probably maybe a couple that don't, but most people understand what happened," he said.
"That was a rigged election."
He claimed he would not make the same accusations in the 2024 election - should he win the Republican nomination to take on Joe Biden - "if it's an honest election".
His repeated false claims of a "stolen" election, a fake conspiracy theory that led to the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
"I am inclined to pardon many of them," he said as hundreds involved in that face charges, adding that while he couldn't do that for all it "will be a large portion of them".
