Obviously, Laura Ingraham doesn’t care if Trump eliminates voting, she just doesn’t want voters to fear that he would.

There’s been a lot of deserved consternation about Donald Trump’s comments to a Christian gathering last Friday: “I love you. Get out. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”

Last night, Ingraham began a discussion about it with Trump by calling the concerns “ridiculous” and suggesting Trump had not said what we know he did say.

“They are also attacking you for other ridiculous reasons. They are saying that you said to the crowd of Christians that they won’t have to vote in the future,” she said, as her first effort.

If Ingraham really thought such concerns were “ridiculous,” as opposed to trying to rehab his comments, she would not have repeatedly tried to get Trump to walk them back. Or she might have played a clip of him proving the critics wrong. It spoke volumes that she didn’t play the clip people were “ridiculously” “misinterpreting.”

Unfortunately, despite Ingraham’s best efforts, Trump responded by doubling down, mixed in with a lot of bragging about his crowd size and popularity and attacks on Democrats. He dubiously claimed that Christians don’t vote (A study of 2006 voters found that Christians are much more likely to vote than non-Christians.)

He also deceitfully dismissed concerns that he wouldn’t leave office by saying, “I did last time.” As if his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the following insurrection he made no effort to stop for hours didn’t count.

Ingraham did not correct the record.

Trump has previously said he’ll be a “dictator on Day One” if he is re-elected. And he has called for “the termination” of the U.S. Constitution. Then there’s the Project 2025 fascism and Christian nationalism he pretends to know nothing about.

So even if Trump was not saying he’d get rid of elections, he was clearly signaling to Christians that he’d so firmly implant Christian nationalism into the bedrock of our country that they’d never feel the need to vote again.

Don’t tell me Ingraham didn’t know that.

We already know Ingraham was happy to sabotage our democracy for the sake of keeping her (presumably) favorite p***y grabber in the White House in 2020. Thanks to the Dominion defamation lawsuit, she was outed as going along with – and promoting – lies about the 2020 election.

Does anyone think that if Trump had somehow succeeded in overturning the 2020 election Ingraham would have objected? Of course she wouldn’t have.

So there’s every reason to think she’d be fine if Trump refused to step aside after four years. In fact, we can pretty much count on the fact that she’d promote his effort and demonize anyone who didn’t go along.

Clearly, Trump's comments to the Christians were an effort to boost his Christian nationalist vote. But I'd also argue they were yet another example of the MAGA fear of Kamala Harris' candidacy.

Below is the transcript of her exchange with Trump. Underneath is the video, from the July 29, 2024 The Ingraham Angle.

TRUMP: Yeah. Let me say what I mean by that. I had a tremendous crowd speaking to Christians. I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot. I think I’m in 97% or something.

And they are treated very badly by this administration, okay? Catholics are treated unbelievably. They are, like, persecuted. And if I might say before I go into the other, Jewish people – if you are Jewish and you vote for Biden or the Democrats or Kamala or whoever is going to run – I guess it’s going to be her.

But, if you voted for her or the Democrats, you should have your head examined because nobody has ever been treated so badly by this – this administration is destroying Israel. Et cetera., et cetera.

So, with respect to, like, a statement like I made, that statement is very simple. I said, “Vote for me, you’re not ever going to have to do it ever again.”

That’s true. Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote and I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote.

INGRAHAM: You meant they won’t have to vote for you because you have four years in office?

TRUMP: Look, Christians are known – do you know who else doesn’t vote? Gun owners don’t vote.

INGRAHAM: Just to be clear, what you are saying, though, it’s being interpreted as – you are not surprised to hear – by the left as well, they are never going to have another election. … Can you respond to that?

TRUMP: I said “Christians” - started off by saying, just so you understand, “you never vote.” Christians do not vote. Well, they vote in very small percentages. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they are disappointed in things that are happening but for a long time. I say, "you don’t vote.” I’m saying, “Go out, you must vote. November 5th is going to be the most important election in the history of our country whether you vote early or not.

We should have, by the way, one-day voting. We should have voter ID. We should have proof of citizenship and we should have paper ballots, okay?

That’s what we should have but we don’t have that. I said to the Christians in the room, thousands of them, I said typically Christian does not vote. Why it is, I don’t know. “You are rebellious.” Something is going on. Don’t worry about the future. Vote on – you have to vote on November 5h. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore.

I don’t care because we’re going to fix the – the country will be fixed and we won’t need your vote anymore because, frankly, we will have such love if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s okay.

I think everybody understood it.

…

INGRAHAM: It’s the constant refrain … But you will leave office after four years?

TRUMP: By the way I did last time. I kept hearing is not going to leave? Is he not going to leave? Look, they are the ones that are a threat to democracy.