Lawmakers debate if Trump can win another term after contentious town hall: 'I will not vote for him'

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Capitol Hill lawmakers reacted to former President Donald Trump's CNN town hall that aired Wednesday night, with some Republicans saying he could win a second term, and a few Democrats suggesting he should never have been given such a primetime platform.

At Wednesday's town hall at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, CNN's Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump on several hot topics, including the FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence, the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the economy and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump said if he's president, he "will have that war settled in one day." The former president also made headlines for his response to one of Collins' questions about a New York City jury finding him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, calling her a "wack job" and saying he'd "never met" her. 

"I thought last night was a travesty and I chose not to watch one minute of it," Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told Fox News Digital. "Why would you put a liar and a convicted criminal on a town hall? And why would you give him that privilege? This is 2016 all over again with the media. And to me, it is frankly reprehensible." 

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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, responded to the town hall, weighing in on whether Trump could win another term. The lawmaker said he'd let the American people decide, while simultaneously explaining why he's endorsed Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. 

"We'll see, we'll let that play out," Roy said. "The American people will figure all that stuff out. Everybody knows I've endorsed Gov. DeSantis… He's done a great job taking on the corporate establishment, the education establishment. He's been leading on life. You saw what he did in the legislature in Tallahassee in signing a bill to protect life. The guy's a machine. I'm proud to be a friend of his… I'll be supporting him, we'll see what happens."

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"I did not see last night's Trump town hall, and certainly I'm going to be supportive of whomever the nominee is on the Republican side of the aisle," Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., said. "Anyone is better than Joe Biden." 

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, was one of several viewers upset by Trump's answer that he'd pardon a "large portion" of the Jan. 6 rioters.

"I think it will be up to Republicans," she said of whether Trump can succeed a second time. "I will not vote for him. And I cannot vote for anyone that talks about pardoning individuals who created terrorist acts and attacked the United States of America. And that's what happened on Jan. 6."

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Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., believed that Trump's performance proved he could win in 2024, especially when holding up his policy record to that of Biden's.

"I think there's such a stark contrast between the Trump administration and the Biden administration," she told Fox News Digital. "Biden literally came in and destroyed all the progress we've made in this country in terms of border security, economy, law and order, energy, energy independence…

"People are concerned about their financial wellbeing, whether they can keep a roof over their heads, how much their paying for energy and gas, energy to heat their homes, have electricity in their house, have gas in their cars," she continued. "They're really concerned about public safety and the illegal immigration over our border and the drug and fentanyl trafficking by the cartels. President Trump was able to do great things for this nation, and he can do it once again. I think that at the end of the day it's going to be Biden's failure versus Trump's successful policies on the ballot."

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Fox News Digital's Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.