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Reuters
US President Donald Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November election.
“Well, we’ll have to see what happens,” the president said at a press conference at the White House. “You know it.”
Trump expressed concern about the ballots, an apparent reference to voting by mail, which he says is susceptible to fraud even though he has voted this way.
More states are encouraging voting by mail, citing the need to keep voters safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A reporter asked Trump Wednesday night if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power “win, lose or tie” Democrat Joe Biden.
“I’ve complained a lot about the ballots,” said Trump, a Republican. “And the ballots are a disaster.”
When the journalist responded that “people are getting upset,” Trump chimed in: “Get rid of the ballots and you will have a very – you will have a very peaceful – there will be no transfer, frankly, there.” it will be a continuation “.
- Does the postal vote in the United States lead to “tremendous fraud”?
In 2016, Trump also refused to commit to accepting the election results in his contest against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, which she characterized as an attack on American democracy.
Finally he was declared the winner, although he lost the popular vote by three million, a result on which he still casts doubts.
Last month, Clinton urged Biden this time not to admit defeat “under any circumstances” in a close contest on election night.
She posed the scenario that Republicans would attempt to “spoil the absentee vote” and mobilize an army of lawyers to challenge the result.
Conservatives have accused Biden himself of stoking election civil unrest by saying in August, “Does anyone think there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is re-elected?”
Earlier on Wednesday, the US president defended his decision to seek the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice ahead of the vote to fill the vacancy left by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying he hopes the election results will end up in court.
“I think this [the election] It will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it is very important that we have nine magistrates, ”said the president.
“I think it’s better if you go before the elections, because I think this scam that the Democrats are doing is a scam, the scam will be before the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Trump was apparently referencing his highly controversial claims that mail-in ballots are vulnerable to fraud again.
The president has said that he will name a woman nominee to the court this Saturday. She would replace Judge Ginsburg, who died last Friday.
Trump supporters hope their candidate, if confirmed by the United States Senate, will cement a 6-3 conservative dominance in the nation’s highest court for the foreseeable future.
All the losing American presidential candidates in modern times have relented, even on very tight election results.
These include 1960 when John F Kennedy narrowly beat Richard Nixon and in 2000 when George W Bush beat Al Gore in Florida.
