ThinkCivics News
Join ThinkCivics+
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
Join ThinkCivics+
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
Join TC+
Home US News Elections

Donald J. Trump on Election 2020 and 2024

ThinkCivics Newswire by ThinkCivics Newswire
October 3, 2021
in Elections
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
0
Donald J. Trump on Election 2020 and 2024
The following is Part 3 of my interview with former President Donald Trump, in which he discusses whether he’ll run for the White House again in 2024 and his possible rationale for doing so.

To read Parts 1 and 2 of the interview, click here and here.

When I sat down with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week, my plan was to wait until the very end to ask him about running for president again. But before he’d even taken his seat, Trump was touting his 2024 poll numbers.

In nearly every interview he’s done since he left office on Jan. 20, Trump has been asked whether he’ll run again. Each time he has hinted and hedged, teased and toyed with his answer, saying only that his supporters would be “very happy” with his decision. I decided to ask the question a different way.

“Given your dominance in Republican primary polls, and given that President Biden’s approval ratings have fallen to 45% nationally and 31% in Iowa and 39% in Michigan,” I asked, “why wouldn’t you run?”

Trump parried with a noncommittal answer. “I love the country, and I hate what happened,” he said, adding that since he left office things have “gone to hell. It’s been a terrible time.”

With that, the former president was off and running, lamenting what had taken place in Afghanistan, which led to a lengthy detour. A bit later, however, I gave it another try. “So,” I said, “I know you might do it, but give me one reason you might not do it.”

This time, Trump was somewhat more direct, and a tad fatalistic. “Well, one reason could be your health. You get a call from your doctor and that’s the end of that,” he said. “That stuff happens; you hope it doesn’t. I just had a medical, just had great result. You never know, there are many things can happen; politics is a crazy world. It is a big commitment of you, your children, your wife and your family.”

Trump couldn’t resist delivering his standard line that “people will be very happy with my decision,” adding that his new slogan is “Make America Great Again, Again.”

If Trump still has some doubts about 2024, during the 90-minute interview he expressed no doubts whatsoever about 2020.

“I feel very strongly that the election was rigged,” he said. “I don’t feel like I could’ve lost Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and I just needed a couple of them.”

The issue of the fairness of the election has become the third rail of American politics. Among Trump and a good chunk of his supporters, there is a sincere belief that Democrats took advantage of pandemic-induced rule changes like universal mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting, drop boxes, etc., to corrupt the system enough to allow Biden to eke out victories in key battleground states. To Democrats and most of the media, it strains credulity that Trump could really believe such a thing. They dismiss these claims as “The Big Lie,” citing a host of lawsuits and recounts that have produced no evidence of fraud on anything approaching the scale necessary to have changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

Yet Trump still cannot get past a singular idea: that he could have done so much better in 2020 than in 2016, winning nearly 12 million more votes nationwide than he tallied four years earlier, and still lose the election.

“You win South Carolina big, Alabama by record numbers, then you lose Georgia?” he told me.  “Doesn’t happen.”

Trump also mentioned his victories in traditional bellwether states like Ohio and especially Florida where he garnered over a million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, nearly tripling his margin of victory from 1.2% to 3.3%. “So many of those metrics that, when you add them all up, it gives very little chance to the other side,” Trump said.

Trump related that, before the election, Republican pollster John McLaughlin told him if he was able to win 64 million votes in 2020, improving on his 2016 total by just 1 million votes, he would win.

“I got 75 million votes and lost,” Trump said, before catching himself and adding, “Supposedly lost. I didn’t lose. You know, I’ve never conceded. It’s okay for Stacey Abrams to not concede, but if I don’t concede…”

Adding to Trump’s skepticism about the accuracy of the election returns was what he experienced on the campaign trail, where he perceived a massive enthusiasm gap in his favor.

“Don’t forget when Biden went out, he couldn’t fill his eight circles. They had to use the press to fill the circles because nobody was there,” Trump said. “And I go out and I’ll get 40,000 or 50,000 people, and then I hear I lost the state? It’s just not possible.”

Trump’s continuing claim that the 2020 election was rigged now presents him, and his party, with a quandary. According to a recent NPR/Marist survey, only one-fourth of Trump’s 2020 voters express a “great deal” or a “good amount” of trust that elections are fair. On the other hand, 72% of Trump voters have “not much” trust or “none at all” in the fairness of elections.

Republicans have embarked on a series of legislative measures in state capitals that they insist will restore Americans’ faith in the electoral system and which Democrats and sympathetic journalists have attacked as everything from “Jim Crow 2.0” to “the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.” No one needs to guess where Trump comes down: He takes credit for leading the GOP push on voting procedures. “Georgia has a bill, Texas has a bill. Some are stronger than others,” he said. “That’s one of the good things that I have done by being vocal about this.”

Some in his party disagree and wish Trump would stop trying to relitigate the outcome of the 2020 election. Instead, they want him to look ahead and help Republicans win back majorities in the House and Senate in 2022. Trump thinks this is backwards.

“The 2020 election fraud is the biggest and its most energizing issue within the Republican Party,” Trump said, “and a large percentage of elected Republican leaders, including Congress, don’t understand that.”

So far, Trump has a better track record of understanding what rank-and-file Republican voters want than the pundits and politicians in Washington, D.C. Whether he decides to run in 2024 or not, rest assured he will not stop talking about 2020 and the importance of election integrity.

“I used to say you can’t have a country without borders,” Trump said. But these days he adds a qualifier. “You also cannot have country with a corrupt election process. And we have a very corrupt election process.”

This article was originally published on RealClearPolitics.com. Read the original article.

ThinkCivics Newswire

ThinkCivics researches, examines, and reports on issues that matter most. We deliver explanative, fearless, and insightful analysis for public consumption.

thinkcivics.com
Tags: Donald TrumpElections
<

Related Posts

New Poll Shows Voters Think Republicans Would Handle Major Issues More Effectively than Democrats

New Poll Shows Voters Think Republicans Would Handle Major Issues More Effectively than Democrats

August 12, 2022
Republicans sharpen fall election attack lines on economy, border crisis

Republicans sharpen fall election attack lines on economy, border crisis

August 7, 2022

Democrat Consultant: ‘AOC Is the Democrats’ Best Shot Against Trump in 2024’

August 3, 2022

Mobile Voting Vans Are Popping Up In This State

July 31, 2022
Load More
Next Post
There Will Be No Return to ‘Normal’

There Will Be No Return to 'Normal'

Examining The Democrats’ Determination to Vaccinate Us All

Examining The Democrats' Determination to Vaccinate Us All

Report: COVID vaccine antibody levels drop ‘nearly 10-fold’ after about six months

Report: COVID vaccine antibody levels drop 'nearly 10-fold' after about six months

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

  • CDC Admits Scary Truths About Vaccine

    CDC Admits Scary Truths About Vaccine

    3 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Doorbell camera catches deliveryman’s unfiltered response to an Anti-Biden doormat and it’s perfect

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • New Details About the Mar-a-Lago Raid Are Truly Stunning, If True

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • LEAKED: Items Taken in Trump Raid Revealed

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Get her!’: Woman brings traffic to a halt starting a fight, then tries running away before eating pavement

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

‘Preserve Your Documents’: McCarthy Threatens AG Merrick Garland With Investigation After FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home

by The Political Insider
August 10, 2022
0
‘Preserve Your Documents’: McCarthy Threatens AG Merrick Garland With Investigation After FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home
National Security

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, expressing frustration with yesterday’s FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, sent a...

Read more

‘Civil War’ trending on Twitter after FBI raids Trump’s Mar-A-Lago

by ThinkCivics Newswire
August 9, 2022
0
National Security

FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla. on Monday night. Among the wide ranging reactions from...

Read more

‘Some Third World Bulls***’ – Dan Bongino Goes Ballistic On Fox News Over FBI Raid of Trump’s Home

by The Political Insider
August 9, 2022
0
‘Some Third World Bulls***’ – Dan Bongino Goes Ballistic On Fox News Over FBI Raid of Trump’s Home
National Security

Fox News weekend host Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, unleashed his anger over the FBI raid of former...

Read more

‘What Are Y’all Doing?’: Cruz Scorches FBI Director for Targeting Patriotic Symbols

by ThinkCivics Newswire
August 4, 2022
0
‘What Are Y’all Doing?’: Cruz Scorches FBI Director for Targeting Patriotic Symbols
National Security

In Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz took Wray to task...

Read more
Joe Biden Accidentally Stumbles Upon the Truth About the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’
Economy

Joe Biden Accidentally Stumbles Upon the Truth About the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’

by RedState
August 10, 2022
0

Perhaps because they know kitchen table issues like the economy and inflation are typically the top priorities for voters come...

Read more
The 50 Most Radical Policies In ‘Inflation Reduction’ Act
Economy

The 50 Most Radical Policies In ‘Inflation Reduction’ Act

by ThinkCivics News Staff
August 8, 2022
0

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has laid out the 50 most radical policies in the Inflation Reduction Act. Banks, the chairman...

Read more
Here’s the Truth About What ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Will Do
Economy

Here’s the Truth About What ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Will Do

by The Daily Signal
August 7, 2022
0

As Senate Democrats achieve their goal of jamming  through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, reality is becoming clear: The bill...

Read more
Sen. Kennedy Speaks for All of Us as He Takes Apart Dems for Passing Manchin-Schumer Bill
Economy

Sen. Kennedy Speaks for All of Us as He Takes Apart Dems for Passing Manchin-Schumer Bill

by RedState
August 7, 2022
0

It’s hard to believe that the Democrats passed a huge tax and spend bill in the middle of a recession....

Read more
Facebook Twitter RSS

Brilliantly

SAFE!

thinkcivics.com

Content & Links

Verified by Sur.ly

2022

Recent News

  • World Economic Forum Calls For Merging Of Human And AI Intel To Censor “Hate Speech” & “Misinformation”
  • ‘You done lost your mind’: Porch pirate learns what happens when you try stealing from a gun owner
  • LEAKED: Items Taken in Trump Raid Revealed

Category

  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Elections
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Faith
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • Military
  • National Security
  • Politics
  • Science & Tech
  • US News
  • Videos
  • World News

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Cart
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Join
  • Contribute

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.