By Lauren Sforza - 07/30/24

The Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz., who announced this week he is backing Vice President Harris in the 2024 presidential race, warned Monday that former President Trump would not leave office if he is reelected.

During an interview with Mesa Mayor John Giles, CNN’s Laura Coates played a clip from Trump’s Monday interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, who asked the former president about his comments made to Christians saying they would not need to vote anymore after November.

Coates asked Giles whether he believed Trump would leave office if reelected.

“No, I don’t,” Giles responded. “You know, as I was writing this op-ed that ran in The Arizona Republic this morning, I remember, at one point, I had a phrase in the op-ed where I said, if Donald Trump is elected, I fear this might be the last free and fair election of my lifetime. And I struck it out because I thought, you know what, that’s a little hyperbolic. That’s more than needs to be said.”

“And then, you know, he makes this statement saying that once I’m elected and I’m enthroned, you know, we won’t need elections any longer. So, sometimes, Donald Trump says the quiet part out loud, and we have to believe him. I think this is one of those occasions that we got some real insight into what his priorities are,” he added.

Trump’s comments on Friday to Turning Point Action’s “Believers Summit” in Florida sparked backlash from Democrats. Some Democrats, including the Harris campaign, suggested these comments signaled that Trump wants to do away with elections if he wins in November.

“You won’t have to do it anymore. … 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,” Trump said at the event.

President Biden’s former communications director, Kate Bedingfield, said on the social platform X that she did not interpret Trump’s comments as doing away with elections.

“I think he is saying I won’t be on the ticket either way, so who cares,” she said. “Which is hideously damning in its own right, cause this is what the Republican Party has turned itself inside out and shredded its credibility for — to become a stan account for this one awful, narcissistic guy.”

The clip from Trump’s Monday interview with Ingraham also included her asking the former president if he would leave office in four years. She noted his comments to Christians sparked criticism from some people that he would not leave office.

“But you will leave office after four years?” Ingraham said.

“By the way, I did last time,” Trump responded.

Giles endorsed Harris over Trump for the White House in an op-ed published in The Arizona Republic on Monday. He wrote that Republicans have “yet to course correct” since Trump “refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election.”

“The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms,” Giles wrote.