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| Donald Trump, White House photo |
Collins: "You asked him to find you votes."And so the town hall continued. [And on that tape, Trump indeed did ask, “So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”]
Trump: "I didn’t ask him to find anything. Let me just say."
Collins: "We’ve heard the audio tape, Mr. President."
Throughout the event, the audience cheered and clapped when Trump lied, cheering even more loudly when Trump complained about being fact-checked.
Of Trump’s many lies, maybe his lies about the 2020 election were the most brazen. As PolitiFact points out, Trump and his supporters have long been falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election. In fact, PolitiFact corrected more than eighty election lies by Trump and his supporters before 2020 was even over. There have been false, easily disproven claims that ballot boxes were stuffed, that voting machines changed votes, and so forth. More recently, Dominion Voting Systems recently won an enormous settlement from Fox News, which had repeatedly promulgated lies about the election. Collins was right that it was entirely untrue to think that the election was rigged or stolen.
Did either the truth or fact-checking affect Trump during the Town Hall? No!
Instead, Trump told the Town Hall audience:
“We did fantastically, we got 12 million more votes than we had, as you know, in 2016. I actually say we did far better in that election, got the most that anybody’s ever gotten as a President of the United States. 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 happens. A lot of the people in this audience and maybe a couple that don’t, but most people understand what happened. That was a rigged election, and it’s a shame that we had to go through it. It’s very bad for our country.”Collins promptly told Trump that the election was not rigged:
“It was not a rigged election. It was not a stolen election. You and your supporters lost more than 60 court cases on the election. It’s been nearly two and a half years. Can you publicly acknowledge that you did lose the 2020 election?”Trump turned to the audience and said, “She doesn’t understand.” What did Collins, an extraordinary journalist, not understand? Simple. She didn’t understand that facts were not the issue. Few people in that crowd cared about the facts.
“Let me just go on. If you look at True the Vote, they found millions of votes on camera, on government cameras where they were stuffing ballot boxes. So with all of that, I think it’s a shame what happened. I think it’s a very sad thing for our country.”Collins rightly pointed out that this was false. As USA Today had already reported, Trump lost 61 of 62 election lawsuits, winning only one minor victory in Pennsylvania.
As if we didn’t get the point, Trump also said:
“All over the world they looked at it. It was a rigged election. It’s very bad for our country.”Who were “they?” Trump never said.
After almost an hour, Collins again insisted:
“The election was not rigged Mr. President; you can’t keep saying that all night long.”However, Trump did keep saying that. The audience cheered and clapped every time he told the lie. Evidence wasn’t the point. Group loyalty was the point.
In general, Trump’s loyal supporters derive their morality from loyalty to the group and admiration for Trump. The partisan audience cheered and clapped to demonstrate group solidarity. Furthermore, let us not think that Trump’s core supporters adopt a false morality because they love Trump. It’s the other way around. They love Trump because he encourages them to reject conventional morality and indulge their most selfish impulses. More precisely, Trump redefines morality as cult-like loyalty: “My Trump, right or wrong.” Mainstream pundits keep talking as if pointing out Trump's lies will somehow make people turn against him. How ridiculous.
So, yes, CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins repeatedly fact-checked Trump for his many lies during the town hall. That was useless. If facts contradict the cult’s consensus, who needs facts? That is, it seems, why Trump turned to the crowd and said, “She doesn’t understand.” That was exactly the point. An experienced, well-prepared journalist, Collins pursued accuracy and truth. Trump, and the crowd, did not. Instead, Trump and the crowd endorsed a group consensus based on group identify, not facts. Collins did her level best, but Trump was right: she did not understand.
What Collins, trained as a journalist, could not fully understand is that religion, politics, and group loyalty can destroy normal moral thinking in a heartbeat.
So, yes, most people have personal moral values. Nevertheless, group loyalty and group consensus often matter more. That’s what creates cults. That’s what creates the Trump phenomenon. That’s what we saw last night at the town hall.
Realistically, most people who support Trump already know that he lies and lies and lies. It was probably worthwhile to remind them that Trump is deeply dishonest. It was, alas, useless to offer correction to Trump’s supporters. It may have been useful to remind the larger audience that watched this event on the television that there is still such a thing as truth.
The First Trump-Biden Debate: Interruptions for a (Non) Cause
Donald Trump Polarized the Nation at CPAC, and That Was His Point
So, yes, CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins fact-checked Trump for his many lies throughout the town hall. That was noble but, perhaps, useless. If facts contradict the cult’s consensus, who needs facts? An experienced, well-prepared journalist, Collins pursued accuracy and truth. Trump, and the crowd, did not. Collins did her level best, but Trump may have been right: maybe she did not understand.
What Collins, trained as a journalist, could not understand is that religion, politics, and group loyalty can destroy normal moral thinking in a heartbeat. False loyalties can wipe out all concept of truth and falsehood, good and bad, right and wrong, to the point that people no longer care what the truth might be.
So, yes, people have personal moral values. Unfortunately, group loyalty and group consensus often matter more. That’s what creates cults. That’s what creates the Trump phenomenon. That’s what we saw last night at the town hall.
In a larger sense, then, what can we do? Probably nothing! Many folks value the clarity that cult-like settings offer them. Joining a movement makes them feel strong. Their charismatic leader inspires them and comforts them. The only solution is to outvote them, and that won’t be easy.
What Collins, trained as a journalist, could not understand is that religion, politics, and group loyalty can destroy normal moral thinking in a heartbeat. False loyalties can wipe out all concept of truth and falsehood, good and bad, right and wrong, to the point that people no longer care what the truth might be.
So, yes, people have personal moral values. Unfortunately, group loyalty and group consensus often matter more. That’s what creates cults. That’s what creates the Trump phenomenon. That’s what we saw last night at the town hall.
In a larger sense, then, what can we do? Probably nothing! Many folks value the clarity that cult-like settings offer them. Joining a movement makes them feel strong. Their charismatic leader inspires them and comforts them. The only solution is to outvote them, and that won’t be easy.
Once again, thanks to the good people at rev.com for preparing a complete transcript of the town hall.
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