Former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the rhetoric of there being a threat to democracy if he serves a second term was a “hoax,” adding that President Biden was the real threat.
Trump was speaking before the New York Young Republican Club when he said that Biden was really the threat to the nation instead of himself.
“Can you believe it? This is their new line, you know,” Trump said. “Here we go again — ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ ‘Mueller, Mueller, Mueller,’ ‘Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.’ One hoax after another. But no, I’m not a threat. I will save democracy. The threat is Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said.
Trump continued, saying that the remarks were a “hoax,” saying that his team calls it “the threat-to-democracy hoax because that’s what it is.”
While Biden and top democrats have warned about another Trump presidency possibly turning dangerous, some Republicans have also shared similar warnings, including former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney (R).
Cheney was a guest on NBC’s “TODAY” last week when she said she feared the United States becoming a dictatorship if Trump was reelected.
“I think it’s a very, very real threat and concern,” Cheney said. “And I don’t say any of that lightly, and frankly, it’s painful for me as someone who has spent her whole life in Republican politics, who grew up as a Republican, to watch what’s happening to my party and to watch the extent to which Donald Trump himself has basically determined that the only thing that matters is him, his power and his success.”
Trump addressed the dictator comments while speaking with Fox News, saying that he wouldn’t be a dictator “except for Day One” when he plans on addressing the southern border and oil production.
His remark sparked criticism from several politicians on both sides of the aisle, including GOP nominee candidate Chris Christie, who called him an “angry, bitter man.”
While speaking to a crowd of supporters on Saturday night, Trump said his comments were misrepresented and that he never claimed he wanted to be a dictator.
“I said I want to be a dictator for one day,” Trump said. “And you know why I want to be a dictator? Because I want a wall… and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
Trump went on to call Democrats “sick people” who “don’t care about our country.”
“They think the threat-to-democracy hoax will save Biden from having created the worst inflation in our country’s history, a fragile economy that may soon end in a depression,” Trump said Saturday.