On Tuesday, President Joe Biden attacked former President Donald Trump and labeled him a would-be dictator.
In response, Trump had a clever retort and questioned Biden’s ability to even “make it” until Election Day.
Biden began his attack at a campaign event Thursday.
“Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy,” Biden claimed at a campaign event in Boston. “I don’t think anyone doubts our democracy is even more at risk in 2024, and I’m serious.”
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win, for the sake of the country,” Biden added in Weston, Massachusetts.
Fox News host Sean Hannity gave Trump a chance to respond to the remarks on Thursday.
Hannity said, “I see what the media’s doing now. I put a montage together. They want to call you a dictator. “Do you have any plans whatsoever, if you are re-elected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?”
Trump retorted, “You mean like they’re using right now?”
Take a look —
Across the mainstream media, claims have been repeated about a would-be Trump dictatorship. Maggie Haberman at The New York Times penned an op-ed called “Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First.” The editor-at-large of the Washington Post warned about “a clear path to dictatorship in the United States.” The Atlantic will devote its next issue to “If Trump Wins,” and its editor-in-chief issued “A Warning.”
However, Trump has shot back that Biden is the real threat to democracy. He raised concerns about the elderly Biden being swayed by far-Left radicals.
“I will say he’s got vicious people surrounding him around that beautiful Oval Office. There are people in that Oval Office that are evil people. Bad people. Smart people. Young, vicious, they are communists,” Trump said.
“He could say that [remark about dictatorship], and everybody thought it was so cute. If I ever said it, they’d say, ‘He’s a dictator, he’s a horrible human being.’ You know it’s a whole double standard we have, not only in the law but just about everything else, as you know very well. I personally don’t think he makes it physically. I watched him at the beach. He wasn’t able to lift a beach chair which is meant for children to lift… and mentally I would say he’s possibly equally as bad and maybe worse.”
The former president also questioned the elderly Biden’s ability to “make it” until the Democratic National Convention in June.
“I personally don’t think he makes it,” Trump said. “I think he’s in bad shape physically.”
Trump described Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., as one voice in Biden’s ear. The former president described Newsom as dangerously “slick.”
“He’s got no facts,” Trump said of Newsom’s performance in a recent debate. “Considering that he didn’t have the facts I thought he did well.”
Hannity asked Trump whether he “would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.”
Trump denied any radical impulses — but did make eyebrows raise with a ‘day one’ quip.
“Except for day one,” Trump said. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said no no no, other than Day 1. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling drilling drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
“That’s not retribution,” Hannity remarked. “That sounds to me like you’re going back to the policies when you were president.”
Biden walked back some of his comments later on Thursday.
The incumbent president was asked by reporters whether he would drop out if Trump did, he said, “No, not now.”
Trump: "He says 'you're not going to be a dictator are you?' I said no no no, other than Day 1. We're closing the border, and we're drilling drilling drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator." pic.twitter.com/SZU6KiYd2l
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 6, 2023
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contribtued to this article.