A backlash is swelling against CNN for hosting President Trump for a town hall Wednesday night, the former president’s first time on the network since 2016. The backlash is building as a new report suggests an opening might be emerging for a third party candidate, and Senator Manchin appears to have taken notice.

CNN’s broadcast was Mr. Trump’s first public appearance since he was ruled liable for $5 million for the sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll. During the program, Mr. Trump reiterated false claims about the 2020 election, attacked CNN’s Kaitlan Collins — calling her a “nasty person” — and, in what may have been the most explosive moment of the night, attacked Ms. Carroll, drawing laughter from the crowd.

“This woman, I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Carroll. “What kind of a woman meets somebody, and brings them up, and within minutes you’re playing hanky panky in a dressing room.”

The event drew condemnation from everyone from liberal Democrats to members of the press to ex-Republicans, with the most common refrain being that offering a platform to Mr. Trump and his false statements is irresponsible and dangerous.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said following the event that “CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” adding: “The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”

“They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said.

An executive at NBC Universal, Mike Sington, reported Thursday morning that CNN’s own reporter covering the press, Oliver Darcy, said, “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.”

“It was Trump’s unhinged social media feed brought to life on stage,” Mr. Darcy said. “CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism, both internally and externally over the event.”

Apropos to Mr. Darcy’s comment, Semfor’s reporter covering the press, Max Tani, reports that the chief executive of CNN, Mr. Licht, said he “absolutely unequivocally” believes that “America was served very well by what we did last night.”

A group founded by both former and current Republicans in 2019 to oppose Mr. Trump, the Lincoln Project, also put out a statement condemning CNN for hosting him.

“CNN gave Donald Trump a campaign kickoff celebration tonight,” the group said in a statement. “Chris Licht sold out CNN’s values to chase Tucker Carlson’s viewers in a desperate attempt to find lost ratings.”

The group went on to claim that Mr. Trump “spewed his greatest hits of election denying, wallowing in self pity, and told lie after lie, while CNN’s hand-picked audience fawned over every answer and even laughed at his version of the sexual abuse case that he lost.”

A current Republican and potential 2024 challenger to Mr. Trump, Governor Christie, seized on Mr. Trump’s comments on Ukraine during the town hall to criticize him for being “Putin’s puppet,” referring to the Russian strongman, Vladimir Putin.

“Donald Trump refused to say tonight that he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia,” Mr. Christie said. “Donald Trump says he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours tonight on CNN. Despite how ridiculous that is to say, I suspect he would try to do it by turning Ukraine over to Putin and Russia.”

For CNN, though, ratings for the program were through the roof for a network looking for a way to recover from viewership levels at a 10-year low.

Preliminary ratings for the CNN town hall with Mr. Trump reported that there were 3.1 million total viewers and 703,000 viewers aged 25 to 54, beating out Fox News, MSNBC, Newsmax, and News Nation. For Comparison, CNN had 531,000 total viewers the previous night.