Trump digs in on false election claims, defending Jan. 6 riot in CNN town hall

Former president Donald Trump kicked off his highly publicized return to mainstream prime time TV by repeatedly refusing to accept his defeat in the 2020 election and defending the mob of his supporters who disrupted the peaceful transfer of power.

“When you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happened,” Trump said in response to CNN host Kaitlan Collins’s opening question asking him to accept the 2020 results. “That was a rigged election.”

He went on to call Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of his supporters assaulted police and broke into the Capitol to disrupt the certification of his electoral defeat, a “beautiful day.” He said Ashli Babbitt, the rioter killed by police trying to break into the House chamber, should not have been shot; denied that then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was hiding from rioters chanting for his hanging, was in any danger; and repeated his promise to pardon participants in the insurrection.