Former President Donald Trump addressed the attendees Conservative Christian event on Friday night that they “no longer have to vote” if he is elected to office in November. He implored Christians to save America by voting “this time” so he could win a presidential election “too big to rig.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, made his comments at the end of a speech at The Believers Summit, hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Christians get out and vote. This is the time,” he urged. “You don’t have to do that anymore. Four more years
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Trump continued: “I love Christians, I’m a Christian. I love you guys, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’re going to fix it, and you don’t have to vote.
On social media, there were some alarm calls in response to Trump’s comments, which hinted at authoritarianism and worried that they could be interpreted as a sign that he would not leave office if he won the election.
“Democracy is at stake. This is not a drill,” Alison Gill, co-host of the podcast “Jack,” posted alongside a picture showing Trump’s message to Christians.
At the end of his hour-long speech, Trump claimed that Democrats had rigged the 2020 presidential election — which Trump falsely claimed had won President Biden.
The audience gave him a standing ovation, chanted “fight, fight, fight, fight, fight” and pumped his fists like Trump did after a gunshot grazed his ear. Attempted assassination At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania two weeks ago.
Trump shared that he had removed the last of his earplugs shortly before speaking on the show.
“I took it off. I took it off for this group. I don’t know why I did it for this group, but it is,” he said.
Before Friday night’s event, Trump first wore a large white headband over his ear. During her rally in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday, she wore a very discreet flesh-colored outfit.
CBS News reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on his comments.
Trump spoke to a few hundred people in a packed audience at the summit a few hours later Meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago. Netanyahu Mr. He met separately with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House a day earlier.
He spent much of his speech criticizing Harris, who is considered the Democratic nominee for president after President Biden. He decided to give up His re-election bid.
Other speakers at the two-day event, which focused on “unity and biblical truth,” included former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development during the Trump administration, and conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
Navarro, who was recently released from prison, spoke just before Trump and led the audience in a chant: “If we don’t control our government, their government will control us.”
He told the audience that the justice system had unfairly gone after him, using rhetoric similar to Trump’s frequent use.
“What happened to me can happen to you,” Navarro said. “If they can come for Donald Trump, they can come for you.”
Navarro served four months in prison for defying a congressional subpoena. He Released earlier this month.
The former president previously tried to appeal to evangelical Christians.
In June, he said a A group of politically influential evangelical Christians in Washington They cannot “sit on the sidelines” of the 2024 election and at one point they are told “Christians go vote!”
