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It was a simple question. It was posed twice. The questioner was a friend and ally. It all happened in front of a fawning crowd of true believers.

And still, former President Donald Trump couldn’t simply say no, he wasn’t planning to be an authoritarian dictator if he becomes president again.

Trump’s rhetoric has grown increasingly dark. His calls for retribution and revenge have escalated sharply. He has surrounded himself with smart people laser-focused on expanding his own power exponentially. Non-partisan federal agencies, the Justice Department and even the military. He plans to force full fealty or else.

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Journalists have taken notice and have written about it.

Former Republican Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, earlier this week, bluntly said the nation is sleepwalking into dictatorship.

Trump’s campaign has been quietly whispering to surrogates and allies to publicly push back against that narrative and to deny that’s really what the former president is doing. It even accused his Democratic rival of being anti-democratic instead.

So, a town hall event Tuesday hosted by Fox News host Sean Hannity seemed like an easy and public way to simply have Trump say bluntly he didn’t want to be a dictator.

And yet, when Hannity asked, “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?” and instead, Trump complained about the 91 criminal charges against him and didn’t say now.

Hannity tried again later in the town hall, asking, “Under no circumstances, you are promising American tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”

And Trump still didn’t say no. In fact, he said he would on Day 1, and then he launched into his goal of closing the border and opening up more drilling.

At one point, things got so dystopian the former president called gangster Al Capone one of the greatest of all time and then implied that because Trump had been indicted more times, he was even greater.

Honestly, I try not to talk a lot about the former president these days. I try not to read a lot of the specifics about his campaign. I certainly try not to write many commentaries about him because I don’t know who is listening anymore. Opponents have been at outrage Level 11 since 2016, and Trump’s base only believes him.

I guess that is the only reason I felt I could say all this today with even a tiny hope it might be heard because it literally is what the former president is saying. It was a simple question. It was posed twice. The person posing the question was a friend and ally. It all happened in front of a fawning crowd of true believers.

And still, former President Trump couldn’t simply say聽no he wasn’t planning to be an authoritarian dictator if he became president again.

His fans believe him, and so should the rest of us.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on 成人X站 Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.