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US President Donald Trump has refused to guarantee that he will transfer power if he loses the November election, earning the scorn of his Democratic challenger Joe Biden and even his own party.
“Well, we’ll have to see what happens,” Trump responded when asked at a White House press conference if he was committed to the most basic principle of democratic government in the United States: the peaceful transfer of power to a country. change of president.
Biden, who has a consistent lead over the Republican incumbent in opinion polls ahead of the Nov.3 vote, expressed disbelief.
“What country are we in?” the former vice president said, when asked by reporters about Trump’s comment.
“Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say.”
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a frequent but uncommon critic of Trump, went further, saying that any doubts about the constitution’s fundamental guarantee was “unthinkable and unacceptable.”
“Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus,” he tweeted.
The peaceful transition of power is fundamental to democracy; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president may not respect this constitutional guarantee is unthinkable and unacceptable.
– Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 24, 2020
Trump followed up his comments, unprecedented in modern times for a US president, resuming his almost daily complaint about the fairness of the elections.
Apparently referring to the increasing use of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said: “You know I have been complaining very strongly about ballots and ballots are a disaster.”
Trump frequently claims that vote-by-mail ballots are vulnerable to massive fraud and is encouraged by Democrats to rig the election.
However, there is no evidence that ballots sent through the postal service have ever led to significant fraud in the US elections.
At the press conference, Trump appeared to suggest nullifying what is expected to be the large number of ballots mailed, noting that in such a scenario, he would remain in power.
“Get rid of the ballots and you will have a very peaceful one; there will be no transfer, frankly. There will be a follow-up,” he said.
Trump’s latest insistence that there cannot be free and fair presidential elections came as pressure mounted on his plan to place a new right-wing Supreme Court judge.
Trump will nominate on Saturday a replacement for the late liberal-leaning judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last week.
His Republican Party, which has a majority in the Senate, is expected to quickly confirm the candidate.
If successful, the nine-judge court will likely have a strongly pro-conservative lean in the years to come.
Democrats are crying badly, saying the process should wait until the election results are known, allowing the winner to shape the Supreme Court.
With Trump and the Republicans mounting a series of court challenges against the use of mail-in ballots, the chances of a contested election result are considered high.
Yesterday, Trump said he believes the elections “will end in the Supreme Court.”
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