Trump will not commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the James Brady Press Conference Room of the White House on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November 3 presidential election.

“We will have to see what happens,” Trump said Wednesday at a press conference, responding to a question about whether he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “You know I have complained a lot about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster.”

It is highly unusual for a sitting president to express less than complete confidence in the electoral process of American democracy. But he also refused four years ago to commit to respecting the election results if his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, won.

His current Democratic rival, Joe Biden, was asked about Trump’s comment after landing in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday night.

“What country are we in?” Biden asked incredulously, adding, “I’m being a joker. Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say about it. But I’m not surprised. “

Trump has been pushing a month-long campaign against voting by mail this November by tweeting and speaking critically about the practice. More states are encouraging mail-in voting to keep voters safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The president, who uses vote-by-mail, has tried to distinguish between states that automatically mail ballots to all registered voters and those, like Florida, that send them only to voters requesting a mail-in ballot.

Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that widespread vote-by-mail will lead to massive fraud. The five states that routinely mail ballots to all voters have not seen any significant fraud.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared to suggest that if states “got rid” of unsolicited ballot mailing, there would be no concern about fraud or peaceful transfers of power.

“It will have a very peaceful, there will be no transfer, frankly,” Trump said. “There will be a continuation. Ballots are out of control, you know, and you know, who knows better than anyone? Democrats know that better than anyone. “
In an interview in July, Trump also refused to commit to accepting the results.

“I have to see. Look … I have to see,” Trump told Chris Wallace during a broad interview in July on “Fox News Sunday.” “No, I’m not just going to say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t say it last time either. “

Biden’s campaign responded Wednesday: “The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting intruders out of the White House. “

The American Civil Liberties Union also protested Trump’s comments. “The peaceful transfer of power is essential to the functioning of a democracy,” said National Legal Director David Cole. “This statement by the President of the United States should concern all Americans.”

Trump made similar comments before the 2016 election. When asked during a debate in October whether he would abide by the will of the voters, Trump replied that he would “keep it on hold.”

Any chaos in the universal vote-by-mail states is unlikely to cause the election result to be tabulated incorrectly, as Trump has suggested.

The five states that already have this type of voting have had time to improve their systems, while the four states that recently adopted it (California, New Jersey, Nevada and Vermont) have not. Washington, DC, is also adopting it recently.

Of those nine states, only Nevada is a battlefield, worth six electoral votes, and likely critical only in a national presidential deadlock.

California, New Jersey, Vermont, and DC are overwhelmingly Democratic and Biden is likely to win.

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