Trump Refuses to Commit to Peaceful Power Transfer Post-Election
Trump wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power if a tally of ballots shows Democrat Joe Biden wins the November election.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power if a tally of ballots shows Democrat Joe Biden wins the November election.
“We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question at a White House news conference on Wednesday evening. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”
Trump has been criticizing the legitimacy of mail-in voting, which is being offered in a number of states as officials seek to limit the spread of the coronavirus at packed polling places.
The president has repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud than in-person voting on Election Day. Lawyers representing Trump’s campaign are challenging mail-in voting rules in several states.
“Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a transfer -- a very peaceful, there won’t be a transfer, frankly,” Trump said on Wednesday. “There’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control, you know it. You know who knows that better than anybody else? The Democrats know that better than anybody else.”
Trump is trailing Biden in national polls and in key states.
“What country are we in?” Biden said when asked about Trump’s remarks as he returned to Delaware from campaigning in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I’m being facetious. What country are we in? Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say about that.”
A few Republicans spoke out to condemn Trump’s remarks.
On Thursday morning, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming tweeted: “The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic. America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold that oath.”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted Thursday that “at noon on Jan 20,2021 we will peacefully swear in the President.”
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was the first member of Trump’s party to speak out on Wednesday. “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable,” he said on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Romney, who has often been critical of Trump and was the lone Republican to vote to convict him in this year’s Senate impeachment trial, said he supported proceeding with the president’s plan to quickly replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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