Trump does not commit to a 'peaceful' change of command if he loses the elections
In answering a question, the President of the United States complained about the vote-by-mail ballots. "Frankly, there will be no transfer," of power, he said. "There will be a continuation."
WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump declined the opportunity to support a peaceful transfer of power after the November elections, renewing his unsubstantiated warnings about widespread electoral fraud before stressing that no transfer of power would occur. power.
When asked if "today he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the November elections," Trump objected, missing the opportunity to call for a calm and orderly electoral process.
"We will have to see what happens," he told a reporter during a press conference at the White House. "You know I've complained a lot about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster."
"I get it, but people are getting upset," replied reporter Brian Karem of Playboy magazine, who repeated the question.
“Get rid of the ballots and you will have a very quiet one… Frankly there will be no transfer. There will be a continuation, ”said the president. That was an apparent reference to mail ballots, which he has criticized for months, showing no evidence, for allegedly being riddled with fraud. This, according to him, could produce a delayed, contaminated or completely illegitimate electoral result.
Trump's refusal - or inability - to endorse what is perhaps the most fundamental principle of American democracy, as any other president surely would have done, was the latest move to cast great uncertainty around the November elections and its aftermath. Democrats are increasingly alarmed as Trump repeatedly questions the integrity of the vote and suggests that, if defeated, he may not accept the results.
On the same Wednesday, Trump said he needed to quickly confirm the successor to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg because he expected disputes over the election outcome to be resolved by the Supreme Court, whose vote could be divided 4 to 4 if a ninth judge has not been designated.
"He's threatening the electoral process and saying out loud what everyone has assumed he's been thinking," said Julian E. Zelizer, professor of American political history at Princeton University. "The more you make those arguments, the more you normalize the fact that that can be part of the conversation."
Even if they are meant to be distracting, these are powerful words that come from a president, ”Zelizer added. "He is clearly accelerating his effort to challenge any outcome that is unfavorable."
Hours after Trump's claims, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, voiced alarm at the comments on Twitter. “The peaceful transition of power is essential for democracy; without that, things like Belarus happen, ”Romney wrote. "Any suggestion that a president might not respect this constitutional guarantee is unthinkable and unacceptable."
Trump's comments are the continuation of a long series. During an interview with Fox News in July, Trump similarly objected when the network's host, Chris Wallace, pressured him to "give a straight answer" on whether he would accept the election results regardless of the consequences. "
"I have to see," Trump said. “No, I'm not just going to say yes. I'm not going to say no, and I didn't do it the last time either, ”he added, referring to his similar misunderstanding before the 2016 elections, which warned that they could rob him.
Even after his election that year, Trump falsely insisted that he had lost the popular vote just because millions of immigrants ineligible to vote had voted for his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
In this campaign, Trump has prepared his supporters to believe that their defeat is only possible through what he has defined as a "rigged" or "stolen" election. "The only way they can take this election away from us is if it's a rigged election," Trump said last month during the Republican National Convention.
Trump has long joked about retaining power beyond legal limits as well, mentioning the possibility of ruling beyond January 2025, when the Constitution, which limits presidents to two terms, requires him to leave office.
In 2018, after the Communist Party of China announced the end of the two-term limit for the presidency, Trump told a closed-door fundraising meeting that China's authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, would be "president of por lifetime".
“I think it's great. We may have to try one day, ”Trump said, to applause from his supporters.
In July, Trump even raised the idea of delaying the November election, a suggestion that lacks legal basis, though he scrapped it after Republicans criticized it.
Trump did not elaborate on his comments Wednesday, in part because he abruptly ended the press conference to attend what he called "an emergency phone call," without offering more information. The White House did not provide further comment or explanation.
The notion that a president could refuse to accept the results of an election and leave office without resistance - something that was previously unthinkable - has become an increasingly important issue during the 2020 campaign.
This month, Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, warned that Trump could challenge the election result and seek to maintain his grip on power.
"What we have to do in the next two months is to alert the American people to what that nightmare scenario might look like in order to prepare them for that possibility and to talk about what we will do if that happens," Sanders said in an interview with Politico. .
David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that Trump's comments "should concern all Americans." "The peaceful transfer of power is essential for the functioning of a democracy," he said.
However, the president's remarks were in stark contrast to the words of his own attorney general, William P. Barr, just a day earlier.
"What this country has going for it more than anything else is the peaceful transfer of power, and that is achieved through elections that the people have confidence in," Barr, a outspoken opponent of vote-by-mail, said during a press conference held Tuesday, in Milwaukee.
"So we should do everything we can to support that trust," he added.
