Former US President Donald Trump attempted to explain what he meant when he told a crowd of Christians last Friday that, as far as voting goes, they wouldn’t “have to do it anymore” if he wins in November.
Trump spoke to Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday amid criticism about his remarks, which Democrats say is further evidence that he would attempt to stay in office beyond a second term. Opponents have pointed to other remarks in which he pledged to only be a dictator on “day one” of a new term and vowed to retaliate against his critics if he returns to the White House.
Ingraham afforded Trump multiple attempts to reject Democrats’ claims that he was telling supporters they wouldn’t need to vote again in the future, but Trump reiterated that Christians wouldn’t have to vote for him multiple times.
“This was a crowd that liked me a lot ... and they’re treated very badly by this administration, OK?” Trump said of his speech on Friday at the faith-focused event in Florida.
“That statement is very simple,” he added. “I said, vote for me; you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true.”
“This time vote, I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore, I won’t need your vote.”
“You meant you won’t have to vote for you because you’ll have four years in office,” Ingraham pressed.
“I’m saying go out, you must vote,” Trump replied. “I said to the Christians in the room … 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 up, the country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore because frankly we will have such love.”
The former president added that Christians and gun owners were the key groups he was trying to appeal to, claiming they “don’t vote.” He also repeated his claim that Jewish Americans who vote for a Democrat “should have your head examined.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has hit Trump in recent days after he has continued to lay groundwork to dodge the next presidential debate, in which Trump would likely face her. President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection campaign a week ago amid fallout over his disastrous performance in the June 27 debate with Trump. Ingraham asked why Trump didn’t seem willing to appear.
“I want to do a debate, but I also can say this: Everybody knows who I am,” he told the host. “And now people know who she is. She’s a radical left lunatic.”
“Then why not debate her?” Ingraham replied.
“Well, wait, because they already know everything,” Trump replied.