Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday repeated her criticism of former President Trump’s comments at a conservative Christian summit, where he told attendees that they would no longer need to vote after November.
Trump has offered little response to the backlash he received over his comments, with some Democrats suggesting he was saying there would be no more elections if he won. Instead, he has argued that he is making the comments because Christians don’t vote in large numbers, and has blithely questioned Jewish voters’ support for the Democratic Party.
“The statement was very simple. I said if you vote for me, you’ll never have to vote again. And that’s true, because we have to encourage people to vote. Christians are not known as a big voting group,” Trump said.
“Now please vote. I will fix the country and you don’t have to vote anymore. We don’t need your vote. Go back to not voting,” he added.
“You said that because you have four years in office, people don’t have to vote for you. Is that what you mean?” Ingram asked.
After Trump didn’t respond directly, Ingraham suggested some liberals had interpreted Trump’s original comments to mean there wouldn’t be another election. Trump said he had never heard such a criticism before and repeated his claim that Christians don’t tend to vote in large numbers.
“Christians vote at a low rate. They vote at a very low rate. I don’t know why. Maybe they’re frustrated with what’s going on,” Trump said. “I say, ‘You guys aren’t going to vote. Go out and vote.’ But I said to the thousands of Christians in the room, I said, Christians in general don’t vote.
“Don’t worry about the future,” he continued, “you have to vote on November 5th, and then you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to make this better. This country is going to get better… And frankly, we’re so full of love that we don’t need your vote anymore.”
Trump spoke at Turning Point Action’s Believers Summit in Florida on Friday, where he called on Christians to support him in his bid to run against Vice President Harris for a second term, and ended his speech by encouraging attendees to vote in November.
“You don’t have to vote anymore. Go out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote anymore. We’re going to make it so good that you don’t have to vote anymore,” Trump said.
Some Democrats, including Harris’ campaign team, I jumped on that statement They see this as a sign that if Trump wins, he will rule as a dictator and abolish the election. They also note that Trump has said he would only be a dictator for a day, even if he is re-elected to enact sweeping reforms on energy and immigration.
“When Vice President Harris says this election is about freedom, she means it,” Harris campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement.
Some, including Biden’s White House communications director, Kate Bedingfield, dispute this interpretation.
“I think he’s saying I’m not running anyway, so who cares?”She posted on social platform X“That in itself is deeply reprehensible, because the Republican Party has turned itself inside out and ripped its credibility to shreds in order to become a fan account for this horrible, narcissistic man.”
