On Wednesday (May 10) night, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) criticized CNN for its decision to hold a town hall with former President Donald Trump.
Taking to Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez suggested the network “should be ashamed of themselves.”
She claimed CNN had “lost all control” of the Town Hall and was once again being manipulated into broadcasting “election disinformation,” Trump’s defense of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and “a public attack on a sexual abuse victim.”
She also noted that Trump was being cheered on by the crowd while the host was being laughed at.
The more than hour-long Town Hall saw Trump double down on his baseless claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” suggesting those who descended on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, had “love in their heart[s]” and described author E. Jean Carroll as a “whack job.”
The former President’s comments came one day after a nine-person jury found he sexually abused Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her while denying the allegations.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store.
The New York Democrat asserted the blame for the town hall debacle “falls squarely on CNN,” claiming everyone saw what “was going to happen.”
Later, in an appearance on MSNBC, the New York Democrat said Trump’s attacks on Carroll were a “continued demonstration” of the sacrifices sexual assault survivors make when coming “forward [to] challenge power.”
She elaborated that survivors of sexual assault “sacrifice their anonymity… [and]safety” while living in a society where the overwhelming number of structures “allow this abuse… and find it permissible.”
“I think it was a profoundly irresponsible decision,” Ocasio-Cortez added regarding the Town Hall, suggesting she wouldn’t “be doing [her] job” if she hadn’t said that.
