Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is talking about controversial comments
he made last week urging Christians to vote for him
in November,
saying if they do, they'll never have to vote again.
Some Democrats say it's yet another example of the threat
Trump poses to democracy.
Some Republicans claim it's merely Trump stressing the importance of
the election with his typical flair.
The Hill White House reporter Brett Samuels joins us to
discuss.
Brett Trump went on Fox News last night and was
asked about those comments.
What do you say?
Yeah. So to your point,
you're, you know, this is sort of the latest instance
of the former president,
you know, sort of taking things right up to the
edge where he's sort of flirting with this idea of,
you know, eroding democratic norms,
as Democrats might put it,
this idea that there will be no more elections in
four more years if he wins,
as Democrats have argued. Now,
when he was asked about this on Fox,
he really didn't do much to to sort of address
the backlash or to push back on the idea that
that's what he was saying.
His argument was that he was merely stressing the.
Of voting to Christians, a group that he says does
not typically vote in great numbers in presidential elections.
But Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host,
was sort of repeatedly trying to give him an out
here to say that,
you know, he wasn't saying that there would be no
more elections.
He wasn't saying, you know,
that he would be an autocrat if he's elected.
And instead, he just kept stressing this idea that Christians
needed to get out and vote.
So it's just sort of the latest example,
I think, of Trump sort of flirting with this,
this rhetoric, sort of flirting with,
you know, talk of being more of an authoritarian.
Without really directly pushing back on it.
So it's sort of a case of people can kind
of make what they want out of his comments.