Former President Donald Trump told Christians that if they get out and vote in November, they wouldn’t have to do it again.
Speaking Friday at the Turning Point Action’s Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Mr. Trump told the conservative Christian crowd that “it’ll be fixed” if they vote for him.
“Christians, get out and vote, just this time,” he told the crowd. “You won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”
Mr. Trump was calling on Christians to really make an effort to vote this year, and called the group out earlier for not voting “like they should.”
“By the way, Christians have to vote. I don’t want to scold you, but you know that Christians do not vote, proportionately they don’t vote like they should,” he said earlier in the speech. “They’re not big voters.”
He said he was going to “fix” things so they wouldn’t have to worry about making an effort to vote in the future.
“I love you Christians … [but] you got to get out and vote,” he said. “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.”
The former president’s comments quickly spread on social media, with critics taking his comments and saying they show that he wants to end the electoral process if he wins the White House. Democrats have stressed the importance of democracy in this election cycle and have pointed to Mr. Trump saying he wants to be a dictator on Day One of his potential second term.
The Harris campaign quickly responded, saying “democracy is under assault” by Mr. Trump.
“When Vice President [Kamala] Harris says this election is about freedom, she means it. Our democracy is under assault by criminal Donald Trump: After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results,” campaign spokesman James Singer said.
“This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America. Donald Trump wants to take America backward, to a politics of hate, chaos, and fear — this November America will unite around Vice President Kamala Harris to stop him,” he said.
Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, will likely face off against Ms. Harris for the White House. Ms. Harris has taken over the role of presumptive Democratic nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race this month.
Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday that the former president was “obviously making a joke about how bad things have been under Joe Biden.”
“I think he’s obviously making a joke about how bad things had been under Joe Biden, and how good they’ll be if we send President Trump back to the White House so we can turn the country around,” the Arkansas Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“That’s what the American people know. For four years, things were good with President Trump. We had stable prices, a growing economy, peace and stability around the world,” he said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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