Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Sunday that President Trump was “obviously making a joke” when he urged Christian voters to vote for him in November and that, if they do, they “won’t have to vote anymore” because “everything” will be “fixed.”
“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,” Cotton said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“And that’s what the American people know,” he continued. “For four years, things were good with President Trump. We had stable prices, a growing economy, peace and stability around the world.”
Trump spoke at an event Friday hosted by the conservative Christian group Turning Point Action and urged Christians to vote for him in November.
“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,” Trump said Friday.
Democrats quickly pounced on Trump’s comments, with many raising concerns about what steps Trump might take to affect the electoral process if he wins a second term in office.
Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer responded to Trump’s comments in a statement, saying, “When Vice President 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,” he continued. “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 added.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), a popular moderate figure who campaigned for Nikki Haley in the GOP primary, also downplayed the significance of Trump’s remarks on Sunday.
“Well, I think — I think that was a classic Trump-ism, if you will,” Sununu said about Trump’s remarks, when asked about them in an ABC “This Week” interview on Sunday.
“I think he’s just trying to make the point that this stuff can be fixed. You know, obviously, it’s — we want everybody to vote in all elections. But I think he was just trying to make a hyperbolic point that — that it can be fixed as long as he gets back into office and all that. But, you know, classic Trump right there,” he added.
