United States – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, while addressing Christians on Friday, said that if they come out in large numbers to vote for him in the November polls, they will not need to ever vote again as by then ‘we’ll have it fixed so good.’
But it was not clear what the former president was trying to say with those words in an election campaign in which his Democratic opponents said he was dangerous for democracy, and after his efforts to dispute his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, an attempt resulting in the Capitol Siege of January 6, 2021, as reported by Reuters.
Unclear Promise Sparks Confusion
Turning, Trump was speaking at the annual conference held by the right-wing Turning Point Action in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump said, “Christians, get out and vote this time. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
He added: “I love you Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you; get out; you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed, so it’s good you’re not going to have to vote,” Trump said.
Campaign Spokesperson’s Vague Response
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung chose not to elaborate or respond to questions about Trump’s comments in a recent interview.
Cheung said that Trump “was talking about uniting this country” and attributed the attempted assassination of Trump two weeks ago to “the political polarization. ”Police have not mentioned a motive for the 20-year-old man who shot Trump.
According to an interview with Trump on Fox News in December, he stated that after his victory in the Nov. 5 election, he would act like a dictator, at least on day one, to shut the border with Mexico and drill more oil.
Democrats have seized on that comment. Trump has since said the remarks were a joke.
Criticism and Context of Trump’s Statements
Trump is well known to want another term in the White House; however, if he gets a second term, he can only make four years as president. Counts of U. S. presidents are confined to serve only two terms, notwithstanding whether or not those terms are consecutive as provided by the U. S. Constitution.
In May, addressing the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention, Trump made a thinly veiled threat of wanting more than two consecutive terms in office.
He mentioned the Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was in office for three terms – the maximum allowed by the Constitution at that time. This policy of two terms was introduced after Franklin Roosevelt’s period of presidency.
“You know, FDR, 16 years – almost 16 years – he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” Trump asked the NRA crowd.
On Friday, Trump shifted toward speaking about the mobilisation of the base supporters before a probable close contest in the election. Evangelicals have been a strong support for Trump in the recent two elections.
The race has suddenly gotten close after Biden decided to drop his bid for the presidency again, and with his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the presumptive nominee for the Democrats.
Biden’s Withdrawal and Harris’s Rise
Polls conducted in the last few weeks reveal how Trump had a large lead over Biden, but that has not been the case since Harris took over the campaign, as reported by Reuters.
Jason Singer, a spokesman for Harris’s campaign, in a statement, did not directly call for Trump’s comment that Christians not have to vote again.
According to Singer, Trump’s general speech was “bizarre” and “backward-looking”.
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