A 56-year-old construction worker who was born in New Jersey and lives in Florida is being hailed on social media as the “best journalist in America” for his question to Donald Trump.
The former president took part in a town hall hosted by Univision and the one-time Trump supporter had a straightforward question for Kamala Harris’ rival: How can he win back his vote amid his response to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, his reaction to the coronavirus pandemic and that fact that only four people who worked in Trump’s Cabinet out of 44 in total support a second Trump term.
Here’s the exchange:
Questioner: I am a Republican, no longer registered, though. I want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote. Okay, your, I’m going to say action and maybe inaction, during your presidency and the last few years, sort of, you know, was a little disturbing to me. You know, what happened during January 6 and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol. Coronavirus, I thought … the public was misled during coronavirus and that many more lives could have been saved if we would have been informed better. And also people in your administration who don’t support you. I’m curious how people so close to you and your administration no longer want to support you, so why would I want to support you? If you would answer these questions for me, I would really appreciate it and give you the opportunity. There’s, you know, your own vice president doesn’t want to support you now.
Trump: Thank you. So the people that don’t support, a very small portion. We have a tremendous about 97% of the people in the administration support me, but because it’s me, somebody doesn’t support they get a little publicity. The vice president, I disagree with him on what he did. I totally disagreed with him on what he did. Very importantly, you had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington. They didn’t come because of me. They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election and that’s why they came. Some of those people went down to the Capitol. I said ‘peacefully and patriotically.’ Nothing done wrong at all. Nothing done wrong. And action was taken. Strong action. Ashli Babbitt was killed. Nobody was killed. There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walk down. This was a tiny percentage of the overall which nobody sees and nobody nobody shows. But that was a day of love. From the standpoint of the millions, it’s like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I’ve ever spoken before. They asked me to speak. I went and I spoke, and I used the term ‘peacefully and patriotically.’ If you look at the Democrats what they say, you look at Maxine Waters, and you look at Hillary Clinton, and you look at what they say, and they don’t put that on. They only put Republicans on. But they couldn’t get me because of the fact that I said, everything’s got to be ‘peaceful and patriotic’ the and we’ll see how it all works out, but I think that we’re going to we’re right now in another election. All I want is honest elections, I’m willing to take any chance I want honest election.
Jan. 6
Trump did use the words “peacefully and patriotically” during his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. But he also used variations of the word “fight” 20 times, including, “We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
He also tweeted amid the chaos: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Five people died in the attack, including a police officer. Two other officers killed themselves after. There were hundreds of injuries.
Former Cabinet officials
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called him a “threat to democracy.” Former national security adviser John Bolton has declared him “unfit to be president.” And former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse him, citing “profound differences.”
Trump’s attempt to remain in office included a bitter pressure campaign against Pence, who as vice president was tasked with presiding over the count of the Electoral College ballots on Jan. 6. Trump was adamant that Pence should prevent Biden from becoming president, something he had no power to do. Pence had to flee the Senate chamber on Jan. 6 as rioters stormed the building to chants of “Hang Mike Pence!”
John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, had his own long falling-out with Trump. Kelly, in a lengthy October statement to CNN, described Trump as “a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators” and “has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
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Publish date : 2024-10-17 02:19:00
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