How Ron DeSantis' Supporters Reacted to Donald Trump's Town Hall

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Supporters of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been ripping apart Donald Trump's appearance at the CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday night. They accuse the former president of lacking vision for the future of the country.

Trump, who declared his third bid for the presidency last year in the wake of the November midterms, took questions from a studio audience of Republican voters in the early-voting state. The event, held at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, was moderated by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who covered the White House during the years of Trump's presidency.

The event sparked calls to boycott CNN from many. They accused the news network of giving the former president a platform to continue spreading his debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Ron DeSantis
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to guests at the Republican Party of Marathon County Lincoln Day Dinner annual fundraiser on May 6, 2023 in Rothschild, Wisconsin. His supporters have rounded on Trump via social media... Scott Olson/Getty Images

Trump refused to admit his loss at the 2020 presidential election, insisting that the race was rigged. He called Jan. 6 [the date of the Capitol riots] a "beautiful day" and mocked E. Jean Carroll. She is the writer and magazine columnist he was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming by a New York jury on Tuesday.

Despite cheers for Trump from the audience, DeSantis' supporters were among the many taking to social media to criticize the former president's appearance at the town hall.

"On the same day Ron DeSantis was assailing Joe Biden's border crisis, Donald Trump was on CNN attacking DeSantis and lying about finishing the border wall," Erin Perrine, former communications director for Trump's 2020 campaign, said on Wednesday. Perrine is now the communications director for the "Never Back Down" PAC, a group supporting a DeSantis candidacy for 2024.

"The CNN townhall was, as expected, over an hour of nonsense that proved Trump is stuck in the past," Perrine added. "After 76 years, Trump still doesn't know where he stands on important conservative issues like supporting life and the 2nd amendment. How does that Make America Great Again?"

The "Never Back Down" PAC tweeted a list of the topics Trump touched upon during the town hall.

"On CNN tonight, Trump spent an hour talking about: - What he did or didn't do on January 6, 2021; - Whether he will pardon people who harmed police officers; - How the 2020 election was rigged; - Whether he supports terminating parts of the U.S. Constitution or the whole thing because the 2020 election was rigged; - The sex abuse case he was just found guilty in; - A cat named "Vagina"; - His defense of his comments about grabbing women by their genitals; - The federal investigation into his stash of taxpayer-owned classified documents at Mar-a-Lago; - The investigation into his efforts to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden in Georgia," it wrote. "How does this Make America Great Again?"

Matt Wolking, strategic communications director for the group, tweeted: "No message for the country's future. No plan for winning in 2024. Couldn't provide any answers on policy issues. Didn't lay a glove on Biden. Barely talked about anything 95% of 2024 voters care about. And they think this is a home run? Bananas."

DeSantis has not officially confirmed whether he will be running for president in 2024 or not, but he's considered Donald Trump's main challenger. However, he remains a distant second to the former president in recent polls.

Trump supporters appeared enthusiastic during and after the CNN town hall. The studio audience attending the New Hampshire event consistently clapped and cheered Trump through the 1-hour event, and laughed when he mocked Carroll.

"The crowds reaction off camera after the CNN Town Hall is what CNN and the corporate woke media don't want you to see," wrote a Twitter user, sharing a clip from the New Hampshire event. "The American people love and believe in President Trump, not them."

Another posted: "Nice try for a setup. But he is owning your shill pawn on live tv.. Harder to lie when people can hear the audience cheering him."

Other Twitter users cheered Trump as a "winner" and a "king" for the way he handled the event.

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About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more