Cotton says Trump’s ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’ comment was him ‘obviously making a joke’

If you say no, they'll eat the cake when you aren't looking

He doesn’t even know they exist, they’re the little ants on the ground to him. Pathetic.

Creepy weirdos like Cotton imagine themselves the next in line for the throne of dictator.

Oh, that was just high school locker room pranks, you guys! Just like bragging about sexual assault and using the word "pussy" (oh, a naughty word! that was the real issue people had when he was admitting to sexual assault - phrasing) was "locker room talk". That insurrection? That was like snapping a towel in the shower...

Permanently Deleted

I he had promoted mask wearing and distancing, sold MAGA masks, called it a "war on Corona" and pushed the "American-made" vaccine, it would have been a landslide.

If not for COVID, the US would've entered a recession anyway but it might have been properly attributed to Trump. He was already badgering the Fed to lower interest rates in 2019, before the disease was even discovered, because of his disastrous tax handout for the wealthy and trade war with China.

And "but mah freedum" except for women's freedom to protect our bodies from pregnancies.

Oh, I'm well aware, but that's a good call out. That's how they'll spin it now that he's tried though.

If you want to spend your time and emotional energy participating in meaningless bullshit, have at it.

I hope others are a little more responsible and realize The Internet and Cable News and Social Media are the wrong places to get real information. Don't count on fourth and fifth hand reporting. Watch CSPAN, watch political leaders speaking in context. Everything else is, sadly, only "reporting" enough to get you worked up enough to click on ads and generate revenue for them. Russia, China, and Iran know this. They know we're gullible, emotional, and broken. It's actually refreshing to observe news as it happens in real time rather than reading the bile that others spew for your attention. It's bonkers how much of "the news" is just out of context sound bites. It's been happening irrespective of political affiliation. And it's destroying this country and our respect for one another.

I'm literally doing the opposite of jumping through logical hoops.

I'm attempting to illustrate how so many others are jumping through logical hoops to make one group of words mean something entirely different.

Apparently I'm not doing a very good job.

Try to think about why you vote. Perhaps you enjoy or feel obligated to participate in the democratic process. Perhaps you don't vote unless there's something very important to vote about. Perhaps there's a historically significant reason to show up to the polls.

Trump mentions in the speech that Christians historically don't show up to the polls. He's trying to convince them that they should elect him to office to pass all the legislation they want over the course of his four year term. Once he has done everything they want government to do, they won't have to vote again.

That's the context of this statement.

So, if you want to argue about him claiming to be a dictator or not intending to leave office, that's a valid conversation that could be had in the context of other statements he has made. That is not valid in the context of this statement.

If you want to build a case to support the idea that he wants to be a supreme leader, perhaps you could use this statement and re-contextualize it in a clever way to support that case in accretion to other statements he has made.

this isn’t the first time hes outright said he’s gonna be a dictator,

My point is that he did not say that in this speech. He has said it in other speeches but not here. Why are we all focused on this event when we could be discussing the real issues of this speech and / or the other speeches where he threatened to be a dictator?

Great. So let's address that and see why this has me concerned.

"Dictator on day one" or some variation of that has spread to mean that DT intends to fully overstep all boundaries and become a dictator. Because of how the Internet works - because of the old game of telephone - this has taken many turns to mean the greatest threat to ever face the country. Biden has even used this in many speeches.

I wonder how many people have actually looked into what he actually said, what the context was, and what he may have meant by it.

Does it matter? Isn't it great that we can use a presidential candidate's own words against him to generate clicks and manufacturer a propaganda campaign to benefit one political party? I mean, just take Trump out of this and look at the foundation of what's happening.

So what did he actually say? And, given what we know about the dumbest person to ever be elected president, what did he mean?

I'm shortening the exchange found on Snopes.

HANNITY: Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?
TRUMP: Except for Day One.
TRUMP: He says, "You're not gonna be a dictator, are you?" I said no, no, no … other than Day One. We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator, OK?

Four days later,

"No, no. I am not going to be a dictator," Trump said.
"I'm going to manage like we did," Trump continued, referencing his first term in office. "We were so successful that the country was coming together. It was actually coming together and coming together well. It was a beautiful thing to see. And we're going to do that again."

The context of the dialog was that he wants to "abuse power" and be a dictator on day one in regard to the border and drilling for oil. This is certainly something to have a concern for but, in and of itself, is not this whole story about Trump intending to be a president-turned-dictator.

What's more concerning is Project 2025 which certainly has more intent to work around the barriers of the presidency and form a pseudo-dictatorship.

To put it another way...

On Jan. 6, 2024, Trump told a crowd during a campaign rally in Iowa that he had been "kidding" when he was interviewed by Hannity. He also called the news media "sick" and "so corrupt."

I actually find myself sympathetic to Trump's point here. I am by no means sympathetic to the person but just putting a couple words together in a sentence allows the internet to make a claim that I am sympathetic to him. And, if I were sympathetic to the person, that would be an entirely different subject than the issue of the media being corrupt.

Blocked for extreme stupidity. There is no trump apologia in their comment.

Fair reporting would be '45 promises his conservative Christian base that he'll get everything they want done in four years.'

THAT is his point.

The wording about not having to vote is less relevant than the point that he'll get things done - because he wants them to vote this one time. Any presidential candidate could use the same wording about not needing to vote any longer because they'll get everything done that the voters want. It's an incredibly stupid thing to say because 'democracy' but it's a reasonable assertion to a group of voters who only care about a few issues.

If Harris were to "fix" the Supreme Court, "fix" gun regulations, "fix" health care, "fix" climate change, "fix" inequities; it's a reasonable assertion that I may not have to vote again.

TD says a lot of stupid shit. He says a lot of scary shit. Nothing he says should be taken lightly or ignored. However, a lot of it is taken out of context or re-contextualized. Even his statement about being a dictator on day one, as scary as his genuine intention is in an of itself, is misconstrued.

This isn't about nuance. This is about people inserting their emotions into the statements of others. This is about the media blatantly lying. It happens all the time regardless of party or politics or venue or subject matter. It's exhausting and it's something we should all be greatly concerned about.

Thank you.