Last night, in his third town hall appearance on FOX News since last June, former President Donald Trump said he believes that President Joe Biden will not be the Democrat party’s nominee for president next year.

This was one of the two major takeaways from Trump’s hour-long sitdown with host Sean Hannity (actually closer to 35 minutes when the ad breaks and Hannity’s opening and closing comments were factored in).

The other one was Trump’s sarcastic reply to the claim repeated recently by the MSM, Democrats, and former Rep. Liz Cheney (RINO-WY), to wit, that Trump would, if he is re-elected, pose a threat to democracy and rule as a dictator.

In his introduction to the program, Hannity announced that he would question President Trump about the cacophony of voices attacking him as a future dictator.

From the transcript of the broadcast provided by FOX News Media:

SEAN HANNITY FOX NEWS HOST: Here’s The Washington Post yesterday – quote – “The fear of a looming Trump dictatorship.” And this is today’s headline from Salon.com: “Americans are sleepwalking into a Trump dictatorship.” It’s now their favorite word.  

Over at fake news, all cable news channels, you know, they’re featuring, you know, the same brand of fearmongering. Obviously, it’s clear they don’t want to talk about Joe Biden and his failed record.  

After Trump was introduced, Hannity attempted twice to get the former president to respond:

SEAN HANNITY:  They want to call you a dictator.  

You used the words, “I am your retribution.” And now, before that, you said, if you have been wronged, and you used other words as well. But I want to be very, very clear on this. To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?  

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  You mean like they’re using right now.  

(LAUGHTER) 

TRUMP:  So, in the history of our country... 

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 

TRUMP:  ... what’s happened to us, again, has never happened before over nonsense, over nothing, made-up charges.  

I often say Al Capone, he was one of the greatest of all time, if you like criminals. He was a mob boss, the likes of which – Scarface, they call him. And he got indicted once. I got indicted four times.  

With his question left unanswered, Hannity returned to the topic a few minutes later:

HANNITY: We almost have to go to a break. I want to go back to this one issue, though, because the media has been focused on this and attacking you –  

TRUMP: Yeah. 

HANNITY: – under no circumstances. You are promising America tonight. You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody? 

TRUMP: Except for day one.  

HANNITY: Except, what? 

TRUMP: He’s [points to Hannity] going crazy. Except for day one. 

HANNITY: Meaning? 

TRUMP: I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill. 

HANNITY: That’s not – that's not retribution. I got it. 

TRUMP: I’m going to be – I’m going to be, you know, he keeps – we love this guy. 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.  

HANNITY: Well, that sounds to me like you’re going back to the policies when you’re a president.  

TRUMP: Exactly. 

Notwithstanding the context and nuance of Trump’s comment, the mainstream media – and the Biden-Harris campaign – wasted no time in attacking the former president.

Aaron Moussa, Director of Rapid Response for the Biden-Harris campaign, posted on X (formerly Twitter) the campaign’s official statement shortly after the town hall ended.

BIDEN

HARRIS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 5, 2023

The following is a statement from Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez:

“Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s reelected and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him.”

In terms of the mainstream media, FOX News is the only one (on television) that correctly reported the headline: with an on-screen chyron reading, to paraphrase, that Trump said he would not be a dictator except on day one in terms of closing the border and ordering drilling for oil.

There also was Trump's assessment of Joe Biden's candidacy.

The other “money quote,” as it were, from Tuesday’s Iowa town hall was Trump’s assertion that he doesn’t think Joe Biden will be the Democrat nominee for president in 2024.

HANNITY:  Let me ask you. 

When prominent Democratic voices like Maureen Dowd and David Axelrod and Van Jones and others are so critical of Joe Biden – and, of course, he is struggling cognitively. I can’t think of, in the last couple of months, any appearance that he has had where he wasn’t either mumbling or bumbling or stumbling or having no clue where to go, where to exit.  

Now, my question is, do you think, in 11 months, he will be their candidate?  

TRUMP:  I personally don’t think he makes it, OK? I haven’t said that. I’m saving it for this big town hall. I have never really...  

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 

TRUMP:  I personally don't think he makes it.  [emphasis added]

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 

TRUMP:  I think he’s in bad shape physically.  

Do you remember when he said, “I’d like to take him behind the barn?” If he took me behind the barn and I went like this [makes blowing air sound], I believe he’d fall over.  

(LAUGHTER) 

TRUMP:  I believe he’d fall over. Who knows. Who knows. Who knows. 

But it was OK. And, by the way, it was OK for him to say that. He said, I’d like to take him behind the – he could say that and everyone thought it was so cute.  

If I ever said it, they’d say, “he’s a dictator. He’s a horrible human being.” It’s a whole double standard we have, and 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. He couldn’t lift it like that.  

(LAUGHTER) 

TRUMP:  And mentally, I would say he’s possibly equally as bad, and maybe worse. But I don’t know.  

I will say this. 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’re communists, and they’re bad. They’re... 

Finally, on this point, Hannity followed up by asking Trump who he thought would be the nominee if it’s not Biden:

TRUMP:  Well, I saw one person on who I actually had a very good relationship with. But I’m sure that it would end very quickly. I saw him in your debate the other night. And he’s slick, but he’s got no facts. You know, he’s got no facts. I thought he did well, considering... 

HANNITY:  You’re talking about Gavin Newsom?  

TRUMP:  Yeah. Considering that he didn’t have the facts, I thought he did well.  

You know, he said... 

(LAUGHTER) 

TRUMP:  ... “We have the lowest taxes in the country. We have the cleanest streets in the country. We have...”

(LAUGHTER) 

And I’m saying, wait a minute. Is he talking about the same place?  

(LAUGHTER) 

So he’d certainly be one. 

I guess they say that Kamala would be the one... 

(BOOING) 

TRUMP:  ... with the odds to beat.   

(BOOING) 

TRUMP:  Because they say, if they didn’t give it to her, the African-American vote, the black vote, would not go to them. And we just had a poll where I’m at 22 percent and 25 percent with the black vote.  If we have that... 

(APPLAUSE) 

Adding some spice to Trump’s comments yesterday was President Biden’s curious assertion on the same day, when speaking at a fundraising event in Weston, Mass., “If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” adding “we cannot let him win.”

Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, NewsNation will broadcast and stream online the fourth Republican candidates’ debate, featuring Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, and Ron DeSantis. Donald Trump, who also qualified to participate (obviously), continues to decline invitations to participate in the debates.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who has covered national politics and other topics for over five decades. His most recent interview on BBC Radio in the UK can be listened to here. His web page with links to his work is http://peter.media. Peter’s extensive American Thinker archive: http://tinyurl.com/pcathinker. His Twitter account is @pchowka.

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