WATCH: Trump Has Convention Audience Raise Their Hands and Pledge to Vote and ‘Cheat Like Hell Like They Do’
The GOP Convention audience roared in a bizarre moment Thursday as President Donald Trump had them raise their right hands and swear to get to the polls on Nov. 3 and to “try to cheat like hell like they do.”
Trump took the stage promising he’d be “brief” after giving a two-hour speech the night before on the convention’s opening day, when he caused a firestorm by promising to dole out $5,000 checks to Americans should Republicans win the midterms.
After insisting Democrats “want to cheat” and warning the party “would destroy everything we’ve built” if they win in the midterms, he then practically begged the crowd to make sure to get out to the polls.
“So on election day, November 3, you’ve got to do me a favor. You’ve got to get out and vote and you’ve got to pretend I’m on the ballot because in a way I am on the ballot, because if they get in, they are going to take away all of the things that we’ve got, and we can’t let that happen.
“In many cases, look, they don’t want to give you voter I.D. Why? Because they want to cheat,” he said.
“They don’t want to give you proof of citizenship. Why? They say well it’s very complicated process. They have more lines. We want voter I.D. We want proof of citizenship. We want honesty in our elections. We want honesty in our country.”
He then proceeded with his pledge — urging the crowd to promise, “That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell like they do. There has never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care, I am going to go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3, or we are going to vote before that.”
Read the full pledge below:
TRUMP: So please raise your right hand. I pledge —
CROWD: I pledge.
TRUMP: To the greatest president in the history of the United States —
CROWD: To the great president in the history of the United States.
TRUMP: That loves us so much he can’t even breathe.
CROWD: That loves us so much he can’t even breathe.
TRUMP: That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell like they do. There has never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care, I am going to go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3, or we are going to vote before that. Right?
Okay. Ready? Ready? Here’s — okay. Are you ready?
Look, Front Row Joes, are you ready? The — look at them. The great ladies of north Carolina. It’s about number 300, I don’t know how the hell they do it. They are beautiful.
Okay. Are you ready? Ready? To finish the pledge. So we swear
CROWD: We swear
TRUMP: That on November 3, we’re going to go out and vote and, you know what?
If you want, you can vote Democrat, but I don’t think there is one person in this room that’s gonna vote democrat. I don’t think so. So I don’t want to waste the words vote Republican, just go out. If you vote you’re voting Republican. OK. So help me God.
CROWD: So help me God.
TRUMP: Whoah. Now I know. I’d say just about everybody was screaming —
You know what happens if you don’t vote right? You go to hell, you know that. You go to hell. And I don’t want that to happen to you so please go and vote!
The crowd then chanted, “Vote! Vote!”
The “brief” speech, which ran more than 90 minutes, ended with a balloon drop and brief concert.
Watch above via Fox.
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