2024 CNN Town Hall: on Principles & Values
Chris Christie:
You fight and fight, but then compromise and take the win
The bottom line is that if you're lucky enough to become the president of the United States, every day, you should wake up thinking about what you do for the people of this country, not what scores you need to settle for yourself. And [Trump] has
shown himself--and I think most particularly in his post-presidency--to be completely self- centered, completely self-consumed, and doesn't give a damn about the American people if what the American people want is in conflict with what is best for him.
Understand that when I say you have got to be willing to compromise, it means you're not going to get 100% of what you want all the time. But if you get 80% of a Republican principle, rather than 0% of anything, that's a win. I know people don't want
you to compromise. I don't go and lay down, OK? I fight. But the skill in this business is to fight and fight and fight, and then know when the moment is to take your win and go and move on to the next topic.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
Chris Christie:
America is a leader; the world is great when America leads
I believe America is a leader around the world and that the world is great when America leads, and America can only be great when we lead. We can't be great by being small, small arguments, petty arguments, dividing each other.
Look, America is great when we don't fill the moat and pull up the drawbridge.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
Donald Trump:
Sexual abuse case: claims trial was rigged & partisan
Q: A Manhattan jury found you sexually abused the writer, E. Jean Carroll, and defamed her.TRUMP: What's happening is they're doing this for election interference. This woman, I have no idea who she is.
Q: This was a jury of nine people who found
you liable of sexual abuse.
TRUMP: I never met this woman. This woman said I met her at the front door of Bergdorf-Goodman; I was immediately attracted to her; We had this great chemistry. And a few minutes later, we ended up in a dressing room.
What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings him up and within minutes, you're playing hanky-panky in a dressing room?
Q: This was a jury though.
TRUMP: They said she wasn't raped; that was her charge.
Q: They found that you sexually abused her.
Do you wish you had testified?
TRUMP: We had a horrible Clinton-appointed judge. This is a rigged deal. My lawyer said, "sir, you don't have to do it. This is a fake story and you don't want to give it credibility." That's why I didn't go.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
May 10, 2023
Donald Trump:
Can't recall if he shared classified documents with anyone
Q: [On Trump's indictment for keeping classified documents]: The Presidential Records Act does not say that you can take documents with you. Did you ever show those classified documents to anyone?TRUMP: Not really. I would have the right to. By the
way, they were declassified after...
Q: What do you mean "not really"?
TRUMP: Not that I can think of. Let me just tell you, I have the absolute right to do whatever I want with them. I have the right. I was negotiating with NARA. Do you know what
NARA is?
Q: The National Archives. But you don't negotiate with them.
TRUMP: All of a sudden, they raided my house. They didn't raid the house of Joe Biden.
Q: But Joe Biden didn't ignore a subpoena to get those documents back, like you did.
Do you still have any classified documents in your possession?
TRUMP: No, I don't have anything. I have no classified documents. And, by the way, they become automatically declassified when I took them.
Q: No, you had to declassify them.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
May 10, 2023
Donald Trump:
FactCheck: Never ordered National Guard to Capitol on Jan. 6
[CNN Town Hall transcript]: Q: Your acting Defense secretary [on January 6, 2021]-- he says you never gave a formal order to deploy the National Guard. But when it came to that day --TRUMP: Excuse me, just the opposite.
Q: Well, Chris Miller was your acting Defense secretary. He says you never gave that order.
TRUMP: He did not say that.
Q: He has testified that.
TRUMP: He did not say that.
Forbes Fact Check:
Miller was asked to be precise. "Just so we're clear," an investigator asked him, "you did not have 10,000 troops, quote, 'to be on the ready,' prior to January 6th."
"A nonmilitary person probably could have some sort of weird interpretation, but no," Miller responded. "The answer to your question is no. That was not part of my plan or the department of defense's plan."
Source: Business Insider FactCheck: CNN Town Hall (2024 candidates)
Jul 26, 2022
Nikki Haley:
Trump thinks Jan. 6 was a beautiful day; it was terrible
Q: I do want to ask you about your relationship with your former boss and current political rival, former president Trump. After January 6, you said this about him, "We need to acknowledge you let us down. He went down a path he shouldn't have and we
shouldn't have followed him and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again." Do you still feel that way?HALEY: Yes. He thinks that was a beautiful day. I think it was a terrible day. I'll always stand by that.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 4, 2023
Nikki Haley:
The best way to appreciate God's blessings is to give back
My parents very much taught us the importance of faith and a conscience. My parents would always say the best way to appreciate God's blessings is to give back. I feel like I've lived my life that way.
And I feel like Michael and I have raised our kids that way, we wanted them to have a faith and a conscience. And we knew if we did that, that everything else would be OK.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 4, 2023
Nikki Haley:
Focus on idea that America is the best country in the world
For the first time in our country, 78% of Americans have said, they don't think that their children will live as good of a life as them. We can't have that. We've got a country to save. That's why we have to have a new generational leader.
We've got to go and fix this country and go back to the values that have made us great. When we really focus back on faith and family and country, and the idea that America is the best country in the world, that's when our best days sort to come.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 4, 2023
Mike Pence:
I will always stand on the Constitution of the United States
I truly do believe that it's important to remember that those of us that would take the oath of office to serve as president of the United States really make one promise above all others, and that is to support and defend the Constitution of the
United States. And I pledge to the people of Iowa and the people of America that, if you give me that great privilege, I will always stand on the Constitution of the United States of America, whatever it means to me.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 7, 2023
Nikki Haley:
Pardon Trump: he was the right President at the right time
I personally think President Trump was the right President at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies. But, the reality is, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And we all know that's true. Chaos follows him.
And we can't have a country in disarray, and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it. And you don't defeat Democrat chaos with Republican chaos.
For me, it's not about guilt or innocence. It's about what's in the best interest for the country. And I don't think our country will move forward with an 80-year -old president sitting in jail that allows our country to continue to be divided.
I think pardoning Trump and moving on is in the best interest of our country if we're going to heal and if we're going to get back together, and get out of the chaos.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2024 pre-Iowa caucus
Jan 4, 2024
Nikki Haley:
Show people how you're similar, not how you're different
I remember when I would get teased on the playground and I would come home, my mom would always say, your job is not to show them how you're different. Your job is to show them how you're similar. It's amazing how that lesson on the playground played
throughout my life, because whether it was in the corporate world or as governor or as ambassador, when you're first faced with a challenge, if you talk about what you have in common, people let their guard down, and then you can get to a solution.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2024 pre-Iowa caucus
Jan 4, 2024
Kamala Harris:
I believe that your faith is a verb: you live your faith
Q: I read that one of the first phone calls you made after President Biden announced that he was dropping out was to your pastor. And I'm wondering if you could say what that conversation was like.HARRIS: My pastor, Reverend Dr. Amos C. Brown of
Third Baptist Church. It was an extraordinary day that Sunday when the president called me, and I instinctively understood the gravity of the moment. I just called him--I needed that spiritual kind of connection, I needed that advice, I needed a prayer.
Q: Do you pray every day?
HARRIS: I do pray every day, sometimes twice a day. We grew up [attending] a little neighborhood church in Oakland, 23rd Avenue Church of God. And I was raised to believe in a loving God, to believe that your faith is a
verb, you know? You live your faith and that the way that one should do that is your life's work should be to think about how you can serve in a way that is uplifting other people. And that guides a lot of how I think about my work and what is important.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Oct 23, 2024
Page last updated: Oct 27, 2024