- Former President Donald Trump told his supporters they “don’t have to vote” for him.
- He said they should instead “watch” other voters, alluding to his false election fraud claims.
- “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting,” he told his New Hampshire fans.
Former President Donald Trump told supporters at a New Hampshire rally that they don’t need to vote on election day next year.
Instead, they should spend their time keeping an eye on other voters, he said.
Speaking at the Monday event in Derry, Trump once again alluded to his baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
“So we have to be careful, you gotta get out there and you got to watch those voters,” Trump said. “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes, you gotta watch.”
Trump, who often campaigns and fundraises off a debunked claim that the 2020 election was rigged, in his speech criticized current voting requirements in the US and called for more counter-fraud measures in national elections.
Trump secured the GOP nomination in New Hampshire in the 2016 and 2020 primaries, but subsequently lost the state to Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden in the presidential elections.
When asked to comment on the former president’s Monday statements, a spokesperson for Trump told Insider: “He was clearly talking about election integrity and making sure only legal votes are counted, and not letting what happened in 2020 happen again.”
The 2024 campaign team for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s competing with Trump for the GOP nomination, seized upon the former president’s remarks about voting.
“This is the type of talk that loses elections,” wrote DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, on X.
During his speech, Trump also compared himself to South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, and cast himself as a victim in the four criminal indictments and other civil trials he’s facing.
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it for a reason,” he said.
The former president has been slapped with 91 felony charges since March.
Before the rally, he denied that he had ever been indicted, though he’s personally appeared in court to plead not guilty to the crimes he’s been accused of.
“This is all Biden stuff, all of these indictments that you see. I was never indicted, you practically never heard the word, it wasn’t a word that registered,” he told reporters.
He had visited New Hampshire’s state Capitol that day to officially file the paperwork for his GOP nomination bid.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
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