Key events
Trump’s remarks a ‘promise to end American democracy’, says Harris campaign
The Harris campaign responded by saying that Donald Trump’s remarks to Christian supporters were a “promise to end democracy”.
A statement from the Harris campaign read:
When Vice President Harris says this election is about freedom she means it. Our democracy is under assault by criminal Donald Trump.
Trump “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,” the campaign warns.
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.
Cardi B, the New York rap superstar, posted a clip of Donald Trump’s rally speech asking if the former president was “whistleblowing a dictatorship?”
Cardi has previously suggested she will not be voting for Trump or Joe Biden, telling Rolling Stone that she saw Trump’s presidency as a major threat but felt “layers and layers of disappointment” during the Biden administration.
The rapper revoked her support for Biden last November over US military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Republicans dismiss comments as ‘classic Trumpism’
Asked to clarify Donald Trump’s remarks, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said the former Republican president “was talking about uniting this country”.
Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, dismissed Trump’s comments in an interview with ABC.
“I think it was a classic Trumpism if you will,” Sununu said, adding:
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.
Tom Cotton, a senator from Arkansas, said Trump was “obviously making a joke”. Cotton told CNN:
I think he’s obviously making a joke about how bad things have been under Joe Biden and how good they will be if we send President Trump back to the White House, so we can turn the country around again.
Lindsey Graham, a senator for South Carolina, told CBS that Trump was telling supporters that “the nightmare that we’re experiencing will soon be over. Give me four more years, and I’m gonna right this ship called America and pass it on to the next generation.” Graham added:
We will have democracy, God willing, for a very long time in this country. But what President Trump is trying to tell people – ‘I did it once, I can do it again.
.@LindseyGrahamSC responds to Donald Trump’s recent rally comments that Americans “won’t have to vote anymore” if he’s elected again: “We will have democracy, God willing, for a very long time in this country. But what President Trump is trying to tell people — ‘I did it once, I… pic.twitter.com/F19C8T0OZO
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 28, 2024
Dan Goldman, a Democratic congressman for New York, posted to X that “the only way ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’ is if Donald Trump becomes a dictator.”
Donald Trump’s remarks to Christian supporters came months after he said he would be “a dictator on day one” if he is re-elected to the White House.
The former president, during a December town hall event in Iowa hosted by the Fox News host Sean Hannity, was asked repeatedly to deny that he would abuse power to seek revenge on political opponents if given a second term.
“Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked Trump in the interview.
“Except for day one,” Trump responded. He said that on the “day one” he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
Trump then repeated his assertion. “I love this guy,” he said of Hannity.
He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’
Adam Schiff, the high-profile California Democrat and Senate candidate, posted to X a clip of Donald Trump’s speech, writing:
“This year democracy is on the ballot, and if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism. Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again.
This year democracy is on the ballot, and if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism.
Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again. https://t.co/eQqYdtm61D
— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) July 27, 2024
Ramon Antonio Vargas
Donald Trump’s remarks that supporters won’t “have to vote again” if he is re-elected in November were immediately met with consternation in some political quarters.
The constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew Seidel, for instance, replied to video of Trump’s comments circulating on X by writing:
This is not subtle Christian nationalism. He’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation.
He’s talking to “my beautiful Christians” here. And saying they won’t have to vote again. This is not subtle Christian Nationalism, he’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation. https://t.co/6vmzel9SAE
— Andrew L. Seidel (@AndrewLSeidel) July 27, 2024
The actor Morgan Fairchild added in a separate X post:
But … what if I want to vote again?? I was always raised that we get to vote again! That is America.
And the NBC legal commentator Katie Phang said:
In other words, Trump won’t ever leave the White House if he gets re-elected.
Here’s a clip from Donald Trump’s speech at the rally on Friday night hosted in West Palm Beach, Florida, by the far-right Christian advocacy group Turning Point Action.
The former president and Republican presidential nominee told supporters:
Christians, get out and vote! Just this time – you won’t have to do it any more … You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.
He added:
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 good, you’re not gonna have to vote.
Trump: “Christians, get out and vote! Just this time. 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. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian” pic.twitter.com/BFcFlBlMwz
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 27, 2024
Trump faces backlash after telling supporters they ‘won’t have to vote again’ if he wins
Good morning US politics readers. Democratic lawmakers and Kamala Harris’s campaign joined a chorus of critics sounding the alarm over recent remarks by Donald Trump telling a crowd of supporters they won’t “have to vote again” if they return him to the presidency in November’s election.
Trump, at a Friday night rally hosted in Florida by a far-right Christian advocacy group, said:
Christians, get out and vote! Just this time – you won’t have to do it any more … You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.
Trump’s remarks were immediately met with consternation in some political quarters, with some arguing that the Republican presidential nominee had implied that that he would end elections in the country if he returns to the White House.
The Harris campaign called Trump’s remarks “a vow to end democracy”, while the Democratic California congressman Adam Schiff, posted to X:
This year democracy is on the ballot, and if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
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The Senate is in this week. The House is out.
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Joe Biden will head to Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. He will then travel to Houston to pay his respects to Sheila Jackson Lee, the Democratic Texas congresswoman who died from pancreatic cancer last week.