Trump's ‘won't have to vote anymore’ remark didn't mean anything, Chris Sununu claims

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Sunday dismissed Republican president nominee Donald Trump’s statement Friday telling people they “won’t have to vote anymore” if they elect him as standard Trump rhetoric.

“I think it was a classic Trumpism if you will,” he said to host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.” Sununu's response to the remarks was in sharp contrast to the way many Democrats heard it — as a genuine threat to American institutions.

Speaking Friday in at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in Florida, the former president said, “Get out and vote just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years it will be fixed. It'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians."

Trump added: "You’ve 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.”

Sununu, a Republican, took the word "fixed" to mean that the country could be repaired, rather than future elections to be "fixed" to achieve a certain outcome.

“Obviously we want everybody to vote in all elections, but I think he was just trying to make a hyberbolic point that it can be fixed as long as he gets back into office and all that,” Sununu said.

Trump’s remarks set off alarm bells among progressives who saw them as signs that Trump might not intend to allow future elections should he be elected in November. The Harris campaign responded Saturday: "When Vice President Harris says this election is about freedom, she means it."

Spokesperson James Singer added about Trump: "He has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”

Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) posted the Trump clip on X and said: "The only way 'you won’t have to vote anymore' is if Donald Trump becomes a dictator." And Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on X: “This year democracy is on the ballot, and if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism. Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again.”

Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann boiled it down to: "Oh. Trump just cancelled the 2028 election."

Republicans found the situation to be considerably less problematic, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) saying on CNN's "State of the Union" that the former president was "obviously making a joke."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also waved off the notion of Trump as a threat to democracy.

"He's trying to tell the Christian community and anybody else who's listening," Graham said on CBS' "Face the Nation," "the nightmare that we're experiencing will soon be over, give me four more years and I'm gonna ride this ship called America and pass it on to the next generation."