Opinion | What we learned from the Trump CNN town hall

The way to re-democratize members of Mr. Trump’s base is for them to know they’re being heard and democracy is working for them. It means giving Mr. Trump mainstream platforms. Even more important, it means giving his very frustrated supporters highly public, mainstream platforms — but not anonymous. We need to help them be heard and honored as citizens of the United States who deserve a voice at every government and mainstream media table.

Perry Skeath, Chevy Chase

Regarding the May 12 front-page article “CNN brass under fire for Trump town hall” and Erik Wemple’s May 12 Friday Opinion column, “CNN let itself get steamrolled by Trump”:

The decision to hold a town hall event with former president Donald Trump might have been more useful than first meets the eye. In contrast to rallies, the format allowed a serious effort to be made by well-prepared Kaitlan Collins to choreograph the CNN broadcast. As was apparent with one of the questions from the audience, she introduced the questioner by stating what the question was going to be about, and she was ready with a series of follow-up questions on the same topic.

Informationally, it became apparent that the former president would not necessarily sign a bill to further curtail abortion rights, consistent with his previous warnings to the GOP not to push abortion bans too vigorously. His statement that he would settle the Ukrainian conflict “within 24 hours” indicated that he would probably favor a freezing in place of the current battle lines. He expressed a willingness to separate families to deter migrant crossings into the United States.

Aside from obvious inaccuracies, there were items to fact-check, such as the widely disparate descriptions of how much wall he had built and much else.

Should the presidential nominees be President Biden and Mr. Trump, the comments and fact checks emanating from this type of town hall meeting could be useful in elucidating Mr. Trump’s positions if Mr. Biden experienced a disqualifying medical event close to the election.

Many have criticized CNN for allowing former president Donald Trump to participate in a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Wednesday with a Republican-leaning audience, as noted in the May 12 front-page article “CNN brass under fire for Trump town hall.” I do not.

I admit that Mr. Trump’s egregious misrepresentations were multiple and abhorrent. The audience’s laughter and applause at them also dismayed me. But we had the opportunity to be reminded of Mr. Trump’s profoundly angry and paranoid demeanor and of his deliberate ignorance and thus to recognize once again the existential threat that his election would pose for this country.

Stanley I. Rapoport, Washington

The documentary “The World According to Dick Cheney” was criticized because the filmmakers did not confront or challenge the former vice president on his positions. Their reasoning was that by doing so, they were able to have him reveal more about his views than otherwise. The same could be said about the town hall meeting with former president Donald Trump on CNN.

Does confronting or challenging someone such as Mr. Trump get anywhere? Or is it better to let him reveal himself?

It appears Mr. Trump did more harm than good for his candidacy by taking the latter approach. He has received condemnation from Republicans and did not win over any voters outside his loyal base. He reiterated views that he has outlined time and again, but his latest performance showed how dangerous he is to American democracy. He would pardon insurrectionists. He called Jan. 6, 2021, a great day. He still claims the 2020 election was stolen. He slandered E. Jean Carroll again.

On and on he went with the same nonsense, as a super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his likely Republican presidential primary opponent, called it. Letting Mr. Trump be Mr. Trump, as former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) often argues, was not a good thing for him in this case.

George Magakis Jr., Norristown, Pa.