(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell. You know that...
(LAUGHTER)
DONALD TRUMP: OK? You go to hell. And I don't want that to happen to you, so please go and vote.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
That is the president delivering closing remarks in Dallas Thursday at what was billed as a Republican midterm convention. He also spoke on the first night of the two-night event. NPR's Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: Conventions normally feature delegates and party business, like nominations and policy platforms. This was something different, though, wasn't it?
ELVING: Yes. This was not a convention with that sort of conventional work to do. This was strictly a party pep rally - and a highly personal one. It was about electing Republicans to state and local offices in November, yes, but what we saw was less about those candidates than it was about President Trump, who is not even on the ballot in November. Now, the theory is that certain Republicans don't turn out when Trump isn't on the ballot. So the big to-do in Dallas was meant to persuade those folks that Trump is on the ballot and they have skin in the game.
It is - certainly made the point that Trump cares about these midterms. We even just heard him say that Republicans listening - if they didn't vote, they would go to hell. Now, of course, we assume this was just another case of Trump being a little over the top, caught up in the moment. Sending people to hell would seem to require an even greater expansion in presidential authority...
SIMON: (Laughter).
ELVING: ...Than anything we've seen yet.
SIMON: A prominent Fox News host asked the president about the idea floated to send $5,000 payments to Americans if Republicans held onto the House and Senate it in November. Here's that exchange.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE")
LAURA INGRAHAM: They're saying you're buying the election. You want to buy the election. Why not just give...
DONALD TRUMP: No...
INGRAHAM: ...The money now? If you have the money, why don't you just...
DONALD TRUMP: Because...
INGRAHAM: ...Give it now?
DONALD TRUMP: Because they can't - I'll tell you what, because the Democrats can't do it. Because with them, it's negative growth. With us, it's so positive.
SIMON: Now, of course, Fox is often considered friendly territory for the president.
ELVING: Yes. But Fox also conducts and publishes respected polls, and it has people who can ask questions voters are asking, such as this one. And they can elicit answers as nonsensical as the one we just heard.
SIMON: We ought to note, too, when our colleague Steve Inskeep asked NPR political correspondent Stephen Fowler how Trump's idea to pay taxpayers taxpayers' own money would work? The answer was simply, it wouldn't.
ELVING: That is a good way to bet.
SIMON: Trump marked 25 years since the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon yesterday. Vice President Vance was at the New York ceremony with living ex-presidents and first ladies. What stood out to you about this anniversary?
ELVING: The connection to the present, Scott, the throughline from the fear and the panic that Americans felt on 9/11 and the disrupted and divisive politics we have seen since. 9/11 brought Americans closer together in that moment, brought the civilized world closer to Americans. But the policies that were pursued after 9/11 - of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and now against Iran - these overseas adventures have not assured our safety. Neither has the administration's embrace of tariffs or its attitude of it's us against the world.
So it's amazing to think our government doesn't even want to be allies with anyone it seems anymore, not even Canada. And that's not to mention the post-9/11 domestic policies - the scapegoating and the secret surveillance and the denial of rights. 9/11 was a monstrous tragedy, but it also could have been a historic wake-up call and a great unifying force for America and the world, like Pearl Harbor was before World War II. For a time, it seemed it might be, but that time was long ago.
SIMON: NPR senior contributor Ron Elving. Ron, thanks so much. Talk to you later.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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