(CTN News) – Donald Trump on Monday repeated his weekend remarks to Christian summit attendees that they would never need to vote again if he returns to the presidency in November.
But, after being asked repeatedly on Fox News to clarify what he meant, the Republican former president denied threatening to permanently stay in office beyond his second – and constitutionally mandated final – four-year term.
During the initial remarks made on Friday, which caused outrage and alarm among his critics, Trump told the crowd to “get out and vote, just this time,” adding that “you won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
Donald Trump repeats controversial claim
Democrats and other critics called the remarks “terrifying”, authoritarian and anti-democratic. And Monday, in a new interview with the Fox News host Laura Ingraham, the former president attempted to explain what he meant.
“That statement is very simple, I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again,’” Trump told Ingraham. “It’s true, 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 anymore, you can go back to not voting.”
Ingraham pointed out that many Democrats had interpreted his comments over the weekend to mean there would never be another election again. Trump responded that he had not heard that and continued to talk about how lots of Christians tend to not vote.
“Christians do not vote well. They vote in very small percentages. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they’re disappointed in things that are happening,” Trump continued. “I say, ‘You don’t vote.’ I’m saying, ‘Go out – you must vote.’
According to Trump, “you have to vote” in the election scheduled for November 5th, branding it the most significant presidential contest in US history. “You won’t have to worry about voting after that.
I don’t care because we’re going to make things right, the nation will be repaired, and because we will, quite honestly, have so much love, we won’t even need your vote.
“And I believe that everyone got the message.” Feeling pressured, Ingraham asked the previous president, “But you will leave office after four years?” To which Trump said, “Of course.” “By the way… I did last time,” he said.
Neither Ingraham nor Trump brought up the fact that, on January 6, 2021, after Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential contest, his followers stormed the US Capitol to stop Congress from officially declaring him the winner of the election.
The former president on Friday was “talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division,” a campaign spokesperson for Trump had previously told the Washington Post.
This division was the reason behind the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life at a political rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump reportedly toyed with the notion of running for president three times at the annual National Rifle Association conference in Dallas, roughly two months before his comments on Friday.
He referred to the fact that Franklin D. Roosevelt served as president from 1933 to 1945, through the Great Depression and the Second World War, for three full terms before passing away at the start of the fourth.
“You know, FDR served four terms in 16 years, or almost 16 years. Are we going to be seen as three-term, I’m not sure. or two terms? Trump said, causing several audience members to chant “three!” Politico said.
The US Constitution’s 22nd amendment, which was passed in 1951, now restricts presidents to two terms of four years each.
Source: Theguardian
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