Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his strategy for the fall is less geared toward turning out supporters to vote and more focused on ensuring Democrats “don’t cheat” in the general election.
"Our primary focus is not to get out the vote, it is to make sure they don’t cheat," Trump said in remarks at a campaign event in Asheboro, North Carolina, a state Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign views as competitive this year.
"We have all the votes we’ll need," Trump said, indicating he’s not concerned about boosting voter turnout in his base. "You can see it ... every house along the way has signs: Trump, Trump, Trump, Vance, Trump, Vance."
“We are going to fight like hell to win this election,” he added. “They are going to cheat like hell to win the election because they have no bounds.”
When reached for comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt defended the remarks.
"As President Trump has always said, our focus is on ensuring this election is too big to rig and protecting the vote!” she said in an email.
Asked to respond to Trump's remarks, Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Joseph Costello told NBC News, "He must be worried about losing."
The former president, who has been indicted over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has been laying the foundation to undermine the 2024 results if he loses.
Trump has asserted, for example, that Google is rigging the election and has said that New York courts are interfering in the electoral process through his hush money trial and related gag order.
He has also falsely claimed for years that the 2020 election was stolen.
"The radical-left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020 and we’re not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024," Trump said at a rally last weekend in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania.
Trump has been asked numerous times if he will accept the 2024 election results even if he loses, and he has consistently qualified his response.
"If I do, and it’s free and fair, absolutely, I will accept the results,” he told CBS News on Monday.
Trump has previously downplayed the need to boost his vote count.
“My instruction — we don’t need the votes. I have so many votes," he told Fox News last month.
At the same time, he has encouraged his supporters to do what it takes to vote for him.
"If you want to save America, get your friends, get your family and everyone you know and vote. Vote early, vote absentee, vote on election day. Do whatever you want, but you have to vote," Trump said at a rally in Atlanta this month.
