Former President Donald Trump makes remarks during a Rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Photo / Doug Mills, The New York Times
Former President Donald Trump makes remarks during a Rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Photo / Doug Mills, The New York Times
The former president, in an interview on Fox News, declined to back away from his comments and repeated his argument that if he’s elected, “the country will be fixed” and their votes won’t be needed.
Former President Donald Trump, in an interview broadcast Monday night (Tuesday NZ time), repeatedhis recent assertion that Christians will never have to vote again if they vote for him this November, and brushed aside multiple requests to walk back or clarify the statement.
Trump said Friday to a gathering of Christian conservatives: “I love you. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
His interviewer Monday, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, noted that Democrats have highlighted that quote as evidence that Trump would end elections, and urged Trump to rebut what she called a “ridiculous” criticism.
But Trump declined to do so, repeating a pattern he frequently employs in which he makes a provocative statement that can be interpreted in varying ways, and makes no attempt to quiet the uproar. This comment was especially striking, given his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his shattering of other democratic norms.
The exchange began when Ingraham told the former president: “They’re saying that you said to a crowd of Christians that they won’t have to vote in the future.”
Trump started off his response, saying: “Let me say what I mean by that. I had a tremendous crowd, speaking to Christians all in all – I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot.”
He added that Catholics are “treated very badly by this administration” and that “they’re like persecuted,” then digressed, saying that Jewish people who voted for Democrats “should have your head examined,” a sentiment he has expressed many times before, drawing criticism of antisemitism. He then reiterated his statement from Friday.
“I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true,” he said. “Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote.”
Ingraham offered him an off-ramp: “You mean you don’t have to vote for you, because you’ll have four years in office.”
Trump began talking about gun owners not voting, but Ingraham interrupted him.
“It’s being interpreted, as you are not surprised to hear, by the left as, well, they’re never going to have another election,” she said. “So can you even just respond –”
Trump cut her off, claiming again that Christians “vote in very small percentages,” and digressing into how he would change voting practices.
He then repeated his statement from Friday once more, saying his message had been: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on November 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.”
Former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Photo / Doug Mills, The New York Times
Democracy has been a focus of President Joe Biden’s and now Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, as well as the campaigns of many Democratic candidates down-ballot, and Trump’s comments have intensified those concerns.
“Donald Trump has been clear about what he wants to do if he wins this November – he repeatedly suggested this November might be America’s last election, said he’d ‘terminate’ the Constitution, and promised to rule as a dictator on ‘Day One,’” said Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokesperson.
Trump, in the interview, suggested he was perplexed by the reaction to his remarks and attempted to minimise the whole episode.
In one more exchange, Ingraham noted that Democrats were arguing that Trump might never leave office if elected again, and she asked him, with a laugh, “But you will leave office after four years?”
“Of course. By the way, and I did last time,” Trump said.
He left office in 2021 after his and his allies’ sweeping campaign to overturn the election failed, and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 to try to stop Congress from certifying the results.
