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President Donald Trump on Wednesday once more declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. three presidential election.
“We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump stated at a information convention, responding to a query about whether or not he’d commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”
It is extremely uncommon {that a} sitting president would categorical lower than full confidence within the American democracy’s electoral course of. But he additionally declined 4 years in the past to commit to honoring the election outcomes if his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, gained.
His present Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was requested about Trump’s remark after touchdown in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday evening.
“What country are we in?” Biden requested incredulously, including: “I’m being facetious. Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say about it. But it doesn’t surprise me.”
Trump has been urgent a months lengthy marketing campaign in opposition to mail-in voting this November by tweeting and talking out critically concerning the apply. More states are encouraging mail-in voting to maintain voters protected amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The president, who makes use of mail-in voting himself, has tried to distinguish between states that robotically ship mail ballots to all registered voters and people, like Florida, that ship them solely to voters who request a mail poll.
Trump has baselessly claimed widespread mail voting will lead to huge fraud. The 5 states that routinely ship mail ballots to all voters have seen no vital fraud.
Trump on Wednesday appeared to recommend that if states obtained “rid of” the unsolicited mailing of ballots there could be no concern about fraud or peaceful transfers of power.
“You’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer frankly,” Trump stated. “There’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control, you know it, and you know, who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.”
In a July interview, Trump equally refused to commit to accepting the outcomes.
“I have to see. Look … I have to see,” Trump instructed Chris Wallace throughout a wide-ranging July interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.”
The Biden marketing campaign responded Wednesday: “The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
The American Civil Liberties Union additionally protested Trump’s remarks. “The peaceful transfer of power is essential to a functioning democracy,” National Legal Director David Cole stated. “This statement from the president of the United States should trouble every American.”
Trump made comparable feedback forward of the 2016 election. When requested throughout an October debate whether or not he would abide by the voters’ will, Trump responded that he would “keep you in suspense.”
It’s unlikely that any chaos in states with common mail-in voting will trigger the election outcome to be inaccurately tabulated, as Trump has prompt.
The 5 states that have already got such balloting have had time to ramp up their techniques, whereas 4 states newly adopting it — California, New Jersey, Nevada and Vermont — haven’t. Washington, D.C., can be newly adopting it.
Of these 9 states, solely Nevada is a battleground, price six electoral votes and certain to be pivotal solely in a nationwide presidential impasse.
California, New Jersey, Vermont and D.C. are overwhelmingly Democratic and certain to be gained by Biden.
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