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President Donald Trump was asked on Thursday night if he would guarantee a peaceful inauguration if he lost the election.
I would not do it.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said in direct question about this at a press conference at the White House.
– You know I have complained a lot about the ballots. They are a mess, Trump said of voting by mail.
The interrogator, Brian Karem of Playboy magazine, replied that “he gets it, but people rebel”, before repeating the question.
– Get rid of the ballots, and then you will have a very – we will have a peace – it will not really be a transition, it will be a continuation, replied the president.
Shocked by Trump: “low goals”
Trosset Trump
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday night Norwegian time that there will be an orderly transition after the US presidential election in November.
– The winner of the November 3 elections will be installed on January 20. It will be an orderly transition, as it has been every four years since 1792, McConnell wrote on Twitter.
A few hours later, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president “will accept the outcome of a free and fair election” during a White House press release.
When asked if Trump “will accept the result of a free and fair election if he loses,” McEnany replied that she had already answered the question, and repeated the same message again, writes Politico.
But then again a few hours later, Trump questioned the election again. He told reporters outside the White House before leaving for North Carolina Thursday night:
“We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure it can be,” Trump said, according to the New York Times.
Postal votes critic
Trump has been staunchly opposed on several previous occasions to the possibility of voting by mailing ballots. He believes this will lead to more electoral fraud.
There are no examples of voter fraud related to voting by mail in the United States.
Lead researcher Hilmar Mjelde of the NORCE research center writes in an email to Dagbladet that it is more than just asking for an accurate vote count before accepting a result, than advising in advance that you will not accept a loss.
Grim milestone for the United States
– It is okay if both candidates demand an accurate counting of votes after Election Day and will not accept the result until quality is assured. But Trump goes beyond this with his clues, writes Mjelde.
Think it could be violence
In recent months there have been major demonstrations in the United States. As of Thursday night, two police officers were shot during a demonstration in Louisville.
Mjelde fears that the elections could provoke even more violence.
– That there may be violence after the elections is a completely realistic scenario that is being discussed more and more. Trump won’t say he lost, unless it’s an overwhelming Biden win, which is unlikely to happen, Mjelde writes.
One defendant, two acquitted: fear of riots
American researcher and associate professor Anders Romarheim from the Department of Defense Studies believes that he is more likely to leave in peace.
– Most likely the Republican Party will explain to you that you should. No matter what he does, the result will likely be that he yields to power in the normal way or under pressure from the party. That’s clearly the most likely, Romarheim tells Dagbladet.
However, it is open to violent clashes.
– Then we have the less pleasant scenarios, which can include a deep political crisis and violent unrest, and they already have. If there are doubts about the election result, no one really knows where it might end, says Romarheim.
Romarheim believes the scheme creates enormous excitement in the Trump camp.
– He creates enthusiasm in his most diligent side, when he says that it is not impossible to break the rules of the game a little. And it is very dangerous, because the United States is now in a different situation than it was in 2016. Then we had a situation where no one stood for re-election, he says.
Cops shot
– It was also a bitter and hard fight, but the different factions were not armed in the street, as now. That scenario is scary, says Romarheim.
– Undermining the system
Mjelde believes that if Trump refuses to leave the White House if he loses, it will be a violation of the oath he took when he assumed the presidency.
– It is a violation of the presidency that has closed. He instructs him to defend the integrity of the political system, but Trump undermines trust in him for his own political gain, Mjelde writes.
Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections, Mjelde writes, referring to the well-known political scientist Adam Przeworski’s definition of democracy.
– This underscores how unsuitable Trump is to be president. It is inconceivable that any of his predecessors could have said such a thing, at least not in modern times. And the GOP lackeys are not opposed to him, with the occasional exception of Mitt Romney, Mjelde writes.
Senator Romney has repeatedly emphasized the importance of supporting the democratic system.
Cosmetic surgery accusations
– Peaceful takeover is essential for democracy. Without it, one is Belarus, Romney tweeted hours after Trump’s proposal Thursday night.
“Any suggestion that a president does not respect this constitutional guarantee is unthinkable and unacceptable,” Romney wrote.
– Totally plagued
Romarheim tells Dagbladet that he thinks this time is going well too.
– I think it is going well, but we have never been less sure that it is going well, he says.
He believes it can be devastating if it is as uniform as it was in 2000, when Bush assumed the presidency.
– There is no doubt that the policy of the American party is completely plagued by an unwillingness to cooperate. It is a completely arsenic-like atmosphere, which has been gradually deteriorating over the past 25 years. One may wonder how far they are willing to go if they decided to be like the 2000 election and the great battle of Florida, says Romarheim.
He believes that something positive, that can be drawn from the situation, is that great commitment can lead to greater participation.
– There are many reasons for low participation, but distrust in the system and contempt for politicians are two of them, and both are rarely less when the exchange is so irreconcilable
