Also calls Trump “the most unprincipled person I’ve known to run as a Republican”
By Michael Bielawski
Vermont GOP chair Paul Dame last month reposted a tweet of former president Donald Trump allegedly telling people not to vote.
The full context of Trump’s quote reveals he was apparently making a joke about his confidence to win New Hampshire in next year’s election.
“You got to 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 got to watch election night.”
Trump then continues to talk about the need for more election integrity.
The tweet posted by @SwissWatchGuy reads “Trump just told a room full of voters in NH not to worry about voting because they had ‘plenty of votes’ Telling Republicans not to vote should make it clear that Trump is the outright enemy of the conservative movement. Watch who is silent on this.”
Dame reposted the tweet without comment. He did respond to VDC about why he reposted the tweet.
“I did repost this. But this represents one of the problems that Donald Trump has posed as a candidate. It is incredibly foolish to tell people not to vote because you “have plenty of votes,” he wrote in an email on Friday morning.
He suggested that Trump by questioning the integrity of elections is causing voter turnout to drop for the GOP.
“Many people believe Trump’s remarks about the elections being rigged hurt Republican turnout in the GA elections in 2020, which gave both seats to Democrats in a narrow loss,” Dame wrote.
Dame seems to suggest that the GOP should be embracing mail-in ballots, while others in his party are calling for an end to universal mail-in ballots which means sending ballots to every voter on the checklist as is done in Vermont.
“If Republicans want to win we have to encourage people to vote, and in some cases that also means to vote early or absentee. When the former president tells people, Republicans especially, not to vote it creates a problem for every other Republican up and down the ticket,” Dame wrote.
He continues, “In 2022 Republicans lost a seat because our candidates was 7 votes short. After the fact nearly 20 voters were identified that supported our candidate but did not go out and vote. If we listen to Trump’s advice to not worry about voting we’re going to keep losing,” he wrote.
He then concludes, “Trump is wrong when he tells people not to vote, and I think he needs to be called out for it.”
Dame has also called Trump “unprincipled.” In a Nov. 9 tweet about the former president’s speech in Florida, he tweeted: He’s the most unprincipled person I’ve known to run as a Republican. He intends to talk positively about Rep. Carlos – who endorsed Trump over Desantis. But before he speaks he has to crowd-test the man, and then abandons whatever he was going to say.”
Recently a Rasmussen Poll found that the majority of Americans are doubtful that next year’s elections will be free from fraud. It found that 54% of likely voters believe it’s “likely” that cheating will impact next year’s election outcome, and of those 30% say “very likely”. In contrast, just 41% say it’s unlikely and 24% think it’s not at all likely.
Trump calls for more secure elections
As that part of his speech continues, Trump then starts to ridicule the fact that election days have turned into election nights and then even longer as the process of counting votes sometimes goes for days, weeks, or more. He also talks about the need to secure election integrity via in-person voting with IDs and more.
“It used to be election day, election night, now it’s election month, now it’s election period. Some of these things going for 53 days. It’s terrible. We want to bring it back. Same-day voting, paper ballots, right? Voter ID, voter ID. Let me see your voter ID.”
Some folks in the comment include people who suggest that this was a short soundbite without context. @pennlion55 wrote, “I’ll wait and see what context this is in. I’m pretty sure you’re taking it out of context, and it’s just a joke. 
Another comment noted he could have been referencing the fact that Trump is dominating the GOP primaries.
@RkfromNy wrote, “Lol. He OBVIOUSLY meant the PRIMARIES. U clown .. and yea that’s true cos he has the primaries locked up. RINO Ron and others r trailing by 60 plus points. But keep Bleating trump trump trump…!! Hahahahhaha. #Trump2024”
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle