Top Republicans plead ignorance on Trump voting promise
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans say they can hardly imagine former President Donald Trump trying to stay in power for a third term if he’s reelected for a second in November — even after Trump has twice suggested he’d become a president for life.
“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) told Raw Story. “I'm sure it's not as worrisome as some of you guys are making it out to be.”
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Trump recently told attendees at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach, Fla.: "Christians, get out and vote, just 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."
Last week, when given repeated chances to correct the record with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump tripled down.
“I said, ‘vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again.’ It’s true,” Trump told Ingraham.
Even Trump’s closest allies in the Senate — and Raw Story exclusively interviewed 10 Senate Republicans on the topic in recent days — were left stunned when we ran the former president’s own words by them.
“What do you make of Trump saying, ‘vote for me once and you’ll never, ever vote again’?” Raw Story asked.
“I’ve got no comment on that,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story. “I'm sure that's out of context.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol Building on July 25, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
The disbelief teeters toward confusion for many.
“I didn’t hear it,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Raw Story. “I’ll have to look.”
“Democrats are worried he’ll never release the reins of power,” Raw Story pressed.
“I don't think that's true,” Scott said. “I didn't see it, though.”
‘Sounds preposterous’
Even the Republicans who did catch Trump’s comments are confused.
“I don't understand that statement,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told Raw Story. “I personally want every voter to vote in every election.”
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“Democrats say, ‘Look, this is proof that he wants to pull a 2020 again and not give up the reigns of power,’” Raw Story said.
“I don't think you can conclude that,” Collins said.
Still other Republicans were left asking Raw Story to parse the former president’s comments.
“No, I didn't. I saw it in a headline,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told Raw Story. “What did it mean? What did he say exactly?”
“I don’t know. I can’t interpret him,” Raw Story replied. “But it’s: ‘vote in November and you never have to vote again.’”
“Like, ever in your whole life?” Murkowski inquired.
Sen. Kelly spoke to reporters on Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance's (R-OH) recent comments on women and calling Democrats "childless cat ladies." (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“That's kind of what he implied,” Raw Story said.
“I'm assuming what it must mean is ‘you'll never have to vote for me again, because I'll be termed out,’” Murkowski said.
“Maybe, but that's an assumption your Democratic colleagues don't give after what happened in 2020,” Raw Story replied.
“Oh, no, no. Come on. He's served once, and if he’s successful and he serves twice, there are those that think that he would find a way to give himself a third term?” Murkowski asked.
“Yeah,” Raw Story replied as the senator’s face contorted with constitutional confusion. “So that sounds preposterous to you?”
“Yes. It sounds preposterous to me,” Murkowski said. “Yes.”
Assuming the best
Just like Senate Republicans did throughout Trump’s four years in the White House, most now refuse to publicly contemplate the worst from Trump — and instead just assume the best from the party’s standard bearer.
“You know, I don’t try to interpret what President Trump means. I assume he just means, get him in there and he’ll fix all the issues,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told Raw Story. “If you take things literally with him, you're always gonna need interpretation.”
And plenty of Republicans are interpreting Trump’s comments in the best light.
“It sounded to me like he was saying, ‘I'm not gonna be on the ballot again, so you don't have to vote for me again,’” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Raw Story. “So, you know, I didn't see the full context of it, but I don't take it seriously.”
Other Republicans take Trump seriously, if not literally.
“I caught it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) acknowledged to Raw Story. “When the president gives speeches and answers questions and interviews, he often adopts a stream of consciousness model, and I think that was just part of his stream of consciousness.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Is that one where the media — we take it too literally?” Raw Story asked.
“With President Trump, you can't take everything literally,” Kennedy said. “He's very forthcoming in terms of answering questions, and there's both risk and reward to that.”
Even after being passed up as Trump’s running mate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is still quick to defend his fellow Floridian.
“It’s being taken out of context like everything else he says,” Rubio told Raw Story. “He doesn't speak in the dialect of Washington.”
While Rubio failed to illuminate what the former president meant, Democrats say, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, instead of making excuses for Trump, their Republican colleagues should start listening to him and then take him both seriously and literally.
“Here's a president who doesn't just joke about undermining our democracy but has taken actions to do that with … his decision to stop the certification of our last election,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Raw Story. “So when he makes jokes like that they have a chilling effect on our nation, and I think it's really problematic.”