Trump: I Meant What I Said With 'Won't Have to Vote Again'

He doubles down on controversial line
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2024 2:45 PM CDT
Trump Doubles Down on 'Won't Have to Vote Again' Line
Donald Trump wraps up a campaign rally, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minnesota.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In a Fox News interview on Monday, Donald Trump didn't try to walk back his remark that Christians won't have to vote again if they vote for him in November. Laura Ingraham urged the former president to clarify the remark and rebut what she called "ridiculous" claims from Democrats that Trump is planning to stay in office indefinitely, the New York Times reports. Instead, he doubled down. "I said, vote for me, you're not going to have to do it ever again. It's true," he said, arguing that it is important to boost turnout among Christians for this election only. "I'm explaining that to them," he said. "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."

Trump claimed that Catholics are being "persecuted" under the administration of President Biden, the second Catholic president in US history. When Ingraham tried a second time to get Trump to address criticism from Democrats, he said his message had been that Christians "won't have to worry" about voting after the Nov. 5 election. "I don't care, because we're going to fix it," he said. "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."

Ingraham later asked, "But you will leave office after four years?" He replied, "Of course, adding, "By the way, I did last time." Neither Ingraham nor Trump mentioned his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result or the attack on the Capitol by his supporters, the Guardian notes.

  • Republicans including New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu have dismissed Trump's remarks as a joke or as standard Trump hyperbole, Politico reports. "I think it was a classic Trumpism if you will," Sununu said on ABC's This Week on Sunday. "Obviously we want everybody to vote in all elections, but I think he was just trying to make a hyperbolic point that it can be fixed as long as he gets back into office and all that," Sununu said.
(More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)

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