CNN hosted a town hall with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Wednesday night. CNN morning show host Kaitlan Collins was the moderator. The event was the first of many campaign events to come. CNN was outmatched.

I don’t want to talk about each topic and how Trump answered questions about the past. Trump is Trump. If you are a Trump supporter, you loved the town hall. If you are a NeverTrumper, your hair is on fire over the event. The thing that this town hall exposed is the rank hypocrisy of the left and their minions in the media. The left is incapable of arguing political points and philosophy anymore. Instead, the left just wants any opposing opinions to be shut down, squelched instead of allowed to debate. Most importantly, if something is said that the left does not agree with, the default position is to call that opinion a lie.

The interesting part of this story is that many Trump haters and NeverTrump Republicans thought that this would be a fun event. They anticipated Kaitlan Collins making a fool of Trump, or something, and it was widely rumored that Collins would use the town hall as an interview for her own show, perhaps one in prime time. I wrote about it when the event was announced and wondered why Trump made the decision to go on CNN.

I watched all of the town hall but the first fifteen minutes or so. I tuned in a little late. From what I could tell, the town hall began pretty well for all involved. I was pleasantly surprised by Kaitlan Collins. She seemed to be trying to remain professional and gave Trump the opportunity to answer the questions. As the event went on, though, that changed. With time, Collins became super aggressive in her questioning and got to the point that by the end of the evening, she wasn’t allowing Trump to get a word in edgewise. What it told me is that the liberal media is not prepared to handle a Trump campaign.

CNN took a lot of heat on social media from its base – progressive and liberal Democrats and NeverTrumpers. Many of them were going nuts that Trump was allowed to say anything at all. Everything was labeled a lie by them. It was amazing. CNN issued a statement, a justification if you will, about its town hall with Trump. Snowflake Trump haters were angry that Trump was given airtime to deliver his lies – their description of Trump’s answers. CNN officials felt the need to issue a statement in defense of the moderator.

A spokesperson said, “Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. 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.”

The audience responded really well to Trump and that added fuel to the left’s fire. When Trump called Collins a “nasty person” when she pressed him on how he handled classified documents that made their way to Mar a Lago, the audience cheered him. CNN viewers who are Trump haters took to their fainting couches. It’s not like that was the first time Trump ever called a woman a nasty person. Remember when he did that to Hillary? The left still can’t deal with it.

The left is desperate for another Trump – Biden match-up. They think a Biden victory is a sure thing. They attack Ron DeSantis in hopes of dinging him against Trump. However, the recent WaPo/ABC News poll threw them a curveball. It showed how very unpopular Joe Biden is, even with Democrats, and especially with young people and independent voters. They are now panicked. That poll shows Trump and DeSantis beat Biden by seven points. Seven points. As things stand now, it looks like Trump is comfortably ahead of the other Republican candidates and potential candidates. It’s still very early but if things continue as they are now, the Democrats will get their wish – a repeat of 2020.

Here’s the thing – Trump was in peak Trump form Wednesday night. He had answers for all the questions and reasons for why he did things as he did. He brought receipts. This wasn’t Trump winging it on a stage as he used to do in 2015. And, he had previous experience with Kaitlan Collins from her time covering the White House when he was president. The contrast between Trump and Biden was stark. Watching Trump on CNN it was impossible to not notice his ability to stay on message and not back down when pressed by the host. Collins resorted to continual interruptions of Trump as he was speaking. While CNN and her supporters may think that made her look like a “world-class journalist”, the rest of us thought it was very unprofessional behavior. It looked like she didn’t agree with his answers and just wanted to shut him up. She kept running over him and it was obnoxious.

This morning CNN is busy trashing Trump and his answers. Last night after the town hall, the panel on CNN that was brought in to critique the event provided a perfect example of why conservatives do not watch CNN. I only lasted a couple of minutes and I’m pretty immune to excessive liberal narratives. They began by calling everything Trump said as a lie and it went downhill from there. The reason CNN has such low ratings is because they only deliver one point of view. The conservatives the network hires are ones who will deliver the Democrats’ point of view, not stand up for conservatism or Republicans in general.

What the town hall showed was that Trump is in fighting form. In contrast, Joe Biden is not. When Trump and Biden face-off on a debate stage, if both are their party’s candidates, the current president will look as old and feeble as he is. Joe Biden can’t finish a sentence. Donald Trump refuses to stop talking until his answer is complete. Whether you like his personality and style of speaking or not, there is no doubt that he is in control of his mental acuity. Biden is an old 80 and makes Trump look like an almost youthful 76. If Biden is on stage with Trump, that will be apparent.

Trump is not going to say what liberals want him to say. He isn’t going to call Putin a war criminal. He will brag that Putin didn’t invade Ukraine on his watch. He will say things like he can end Putin’s war in Ukraine within 24 hours. He talks about insisting that European countries pay their fair share and he makes it clear that he is not afraid to go it alone on the world stage. Joe Biden has been a disgrace. He leads from behind and apologizes for American greatness. Trump brought up the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the left didn’t appreciate that.

Kaitlan Collins may have succeeded in showing her CNN bosses that she can handle herself with strong personalities but she did herself no favors with her interview style. She made the mistake of thinking a strong performance meant she had to be overly aggressive with Trump. She wouldn’t let him complete an answer.

AOC was very vocal in her disapproval of CNN hosting the town hall with Trump.

This, the choice to platform election disinformation, lies about January 6th, totally unchecked and reckless claims about abortion… they need to take ownership of what just happened.

This cannot be normalized. It’s dangerous.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2023

Suddenly, show hosts and liberal pundits who have been on vacation from their fact-checking skills during Biden’s administration decided it was time to counter every statement Trump made. They came to the defense of the woman who accused Trump of sexual assault but ignored Tara Reade’s accusations against Biden, for example. Joe Biden lies every time he speaks yet they never acknowledge that. That’s just Joe.

Freedom of speech only goes one way for the left. The left is panicked that they may get what they want – another Trump versus Biden election. The comparison of Trump’s America before the pandemic – a booming economy, no inflation, strong jobs market, secured (as much as possible) southern border, no new wars, conservative judicial picks, and a strong environment for small business entrepreneurs versus Biden’s America and the failure he has been as president is stark. Like him or not, Trump reminds American voters of how life can be and it’s a lot better than it is now.

BREAKING: Horrible interview by @kaitlancollins of@CNN. She won't even allow @realDonaldTrump to talk, broke all the ethics of journalism. Trump called her Nasty. WATCH pic.twitter.com/XayjZNeMbb

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) May 11, 2023