Alabama Democrats gathered ahead of the GOP’s fourth presidential debate on Wednesday to condemn former President Donald Trump’s remark on Tuesday that he would be a dictator on ‘day one’ of his next term in order to close the U.S.-Mexico border, expand oil drilling and enact retribution on his political enemies.
“We've known this for some time, but last night Donald Trump gave it a name: a dictator on day one,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said at the Tuscaloosa, Ala., press conference.
“Tonight's debate may just be a sideshow, but one thing is certain: every Republican on stage tonight is desperate to mirror Donald Trump's MAGA agenda," he added.
The candidates vying to topple the far-and-away Republican frontrunner need to condemn Trump’s authoritarian desires, the surrogates for President Joe Biden’s reelection effort argued.
“The statements made by Donald Trump last night about being a dictator, saying out loud what you in the media have known for some time what we all in America have known for some time,” former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones said. “And so the one point that I want to highlight in the most recent comments is really the white supremacy issue. We are in Alabama. We have a horrible history of white supremacy in this state. And we still see it manifest itself on occasion.”
“I grew up here and grew up in the Jim Crow era. I grew up and I saw firsthand what political rhetoric can cause,” continued Jones, who as U.S. Attorney in Alabama during the 1990s successfully prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members for the bombing of a Black church in the 1960s. “No one is condemning that rhetoric from Donald Trump. And they seem to be somewhat wholeheartedly embracing it. That violence, that rhetoric, the extremism gives hate and fear far too much oxygen, allowing dangerous ideologies to fester, threatens the very institutions that uphold our democracy and make us the United States of America.”
Trump, who is attending a fundraiser and skipping the debate in Alabama as he has with the three previous ones, made the comment about being a dictator during a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity in Iowa on Tuesday. The remark came as Trump has upped his authoritarian rhetoric, echoed Adolf Hitler in labeling his enemies “vermin” and threatened to use the military against his domestic foes.
"Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?" Hannity asked Trump in the interview taped in Davenport, Iowa.
"Except for day one," Trump responded. "I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill."
Trump then repeated his assertion. "I love this guy," he said of the Fox News host. "He says, 'You're not going to be a dictator, are you?' I said: 'No, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator.'"
Earlier in the interview, Hannity had asked Trump if he "in any way" had "any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law to use the government to go after people."
"You mean like they're using right now?" Trump replied.
The four candidates who will be at the debate hosted by NewsNation — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — were barely mentioned by the Democratic surrogates. With Trump’s massive lead and lack of attendance, what was the point of even debating, Jones asked.
“I want to make one correction, this really is not a debate tonight, folks," Jones said. "You can’t debate when the frontrunner is not here. It's really just kind of a town hall get together among folks either vying for the number two spot or just trying to be relevant for 2028 because there’s no way that I don’t think anybody on that stage is going to win the Republican nomination."
Jones, Fulks and Alabama state Rep. Barbara Drummond also defended Biden’s candidacy from questions about his age and slammed Republicans for their anti-abortion laws and agenda, including the virtually complete ban on abortion in Alabama.
Alabama bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape and incest. The only exemption is if it’s needed because pregnancy seriously threatens the pregnant patient’s health.
“Donald Trump has been hell-bent on banning abortion nationwide, running advertising about banning abortion, bragging about being the one to kill [Roe v. Wade],” Fulks said. “If you want to know what another four years of Donald Trump's America would look like, you have to look no further than Alabama. Thanks to this state's total abortion ban, women are less safe and unable to make their own health care decisions.”
While Trump has avoided advocating for a national ban on abortion desired by his base’s most antiabortion factions, DeSantis and Haley have both called for a national ban, Ramaswamy has supported six-week bans passed by states — including the one in Florida that DeSantis signed into law — and Christie has largely avoided articulating an exact position beyond his belief it should be left to the states.
“Every single Republican on stage tonight is united in supporting banning abortion,” Drummond added. “The reality is a national abortion ban would have devastating consequences on the health and the safety of women across this nation.”
“Restricting access to health care puts our lives and our health at risk, leads to increase rates of maternal mortality, creates a climate of fear among healthcare providers that impedes their ability to provide adequate care for women in this state and reduces access in all forms of health care,” she continued.
Democrats have heavily campaigned on protecting abortion rights since the right to an abortion was overturned by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority last year. The issue appeared, in part, to limit their losses in House races last November and has repeatedly proven to be a winning issue when voters are asked directly via referendum, including in redder states like Kansas and Ohio.
As for Wednesday night, Biden’s campaign expects more of the same from the would-be Trump rivals seeking to carve out a chunk of Trump’s base and consolidate support from the voters who want another standard bearer for their party.
“What we're going to see tonight is a doubling down of Donald Trump's agenda without Donald Trump being on stage, but every single one of them is racing to the same type of voters that Donald Trump is racing to,” Fulks said. “Every single one of them is racing to be a miniature version of Donald Trump, in some sense, or to placate Donald Trump in some way.”
The Associated Press and Spectrum News’ Taylor Popielarz and Maureen McManus contributed to this report.