President
Donald Trump would not commit to providing a peaceful transition of power after
Election Day, lending further fuel to concerns he may not relinquish his office
should he lose in November.
"Well,
we're going to have to see what happens," Trump said when asked whether
he'd commit to a peaceful transition, one of the cornerstones of American
democracy.
Trump has
previously refused to say whether he would accept the election results, echoing
his sentiments from 2016. And he has joked -- he says -- about staying in
office well past the constitutionally bound two terms.
But his
refusal to guarantee a violence-free transition went further and is likely to
alarm his opponents, already on edge given his deployment of federal law
enforcement to quell protests in American cities.
His
reluctance to commit to a peaceful transition was rooted in what he said were
concerns about ballots, extending his false assertion that widespread mail-in
voting is rife with fraud.
"You
know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots
are a disaster," Trump said at a press briefing at the White House,
presumably referring to mail-in ballots, which he has baselessly claimed will
lead to voter fraud.
"(G)et
rid of the ballots and you'll have a very ... there won't be a transfer,
frankly. There'll be a continuation," he added, saying "the ballots
are out of control."
Sen. Mitt
Romney, a Utah Republican who has stood at odds with the President in the past,
slammed Trump's comments.
"Fundamental
to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is
Belarus," Romney tweeted. "Any suggestion that a president might not
respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable."
Trump has
previously said his rival Joe Biden would only prevail in November if the
election is "rigged," and suggested earlier in the day it was likely
the results of the election would be contested all the way to the Supreme
Court.
National polls
currently show Trump trailing Biden, though surveys of electoral battleground
states are tighter.
Donald in Blunderland: Trump won't commit to
peaceful power transfer at surreal press briefing
David Smith’s sketch: President takes us through the
looking glass amid the kneecapping of American democracy
David Smith
in Washington
@smithinamerica
Thu 24 Sep
2020 02.38 BSTFirst published on Thu 24 Sep 2020 02.38 BST
Jared
Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, told journalist Bob Woodward that one
of the best ways to understand Donald Trump is to study Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland. Kushner paraphrased the Cheshire Cat’s philosophy:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there.”
Wednesday
was one of those days when to have a seat in the White House briefing room
felts like stepping through the looking-glass into Blunderland, where the mad
hatter has an authoritarian streak a mile wide.
Trump
careered from touting miracle vaccines to building supreme court suspense, from
insulting a female member of the British royal family to abruptly departing for
a mysterious “emergency” phone call. But first, there was the small matter of
kneecapping American democracy.
Perhaps it
was not chance that the president, ever eager to generate media outrage, gave
the first question to Brian Karem, who describes himself on Twitter as a “Loud
Mouth” senior White House reporter at Playboy. “Will you commit to make sure
there’s a peaceful transferral of power after the election?” Karem asked.
All of his
43 predecessors would have said yes, presumably. But Trump replied: “We’re
going to have to see what happens, you know that. I’ve been complaining very
strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”
Karem shot
back: “I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to make sure
that there’s a peaceful transferral of power?”
Still Trump
refused to commit. “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful —
there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots
are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody
else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.”
Later,
Karem remarked on Twitter: “This is the most frightening answer I have ever
received to any question I have ever asked. I’ve interviewed convicted killers
with more empathy. @realDonaldTrump is advocating Civil War.”
And Julian
Castro, who served in Barack Obama’s cabinet, tweeted: “In one day, Trump
refused a peaceful transition of power and urged the confirmation of a Supreme
Court justice to hand him an election if the results are contested. This is
fascism, alive and well in the Republican Party.”
Trump was
also questioned about the failure of a grand jury to bring charges against
Louisville police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone
wrong.
The
president declined to offer his own perspective or comfort for millions aggrieved
by another case of racial injustice. Instead he read a statement from Daniel
Cameron, the attorney general of Kentucky, a loyal supporter who last month
delivered a prime time address at the Republican national convention.
“I think
he’s a star,” said Trump, also noting that the governor has called in the
National Guard and suggesting that, when in doubt, there’s always the strategy
of mindless optimism: “It’ll all work out.”
Another
reporter asked about Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, urging people
to vote in remarks that some interpreted as supporting Democratic candidate Joe
Biden.
Trump said:
“I’m not a fan of hers - and she has probably heard that – but I wish a lot of
luck to Harry because he’s going to need it.”
The attempt
at humour hovered awkwardly in the air like a coronavirus particle.
Speaking of
which, the president was ruminating on Covid-19 when he called his latest
adviser, Scott Atlas, to weigh in from the podium. Trump then told reporters:
“I have to leave for an emergency phone call.”
Karem and
others demanded to know the nature of the emergency. Trump said only: “I have a
big call, a very big call.” Could it be Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin? One wit
on Twitter quipped that it was probably just Lou Dobbs of Fox Business.
Atlas has
the kind of combative swagger that appeals to Trump. He denied media reports
that he has clashed with coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx. He
claimed Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control,
“misstated something” when he told the Senate that 90% of the population
remains susceptible to Covid-19.
Jim Acosta
of CNN queried: “Americans hear one thing from the CDC Dir & another thing
from you, who are we to believe?” Atlas responded: “You’re supposed to believe
the science and I’m telling you the science.”
Indeed,
earlier Trump had claimed, “Our approach is pro-science. Biden’s approach is
anti-science,” – words to remember when he heads to Florida on Thursday for the
latest of his packed, nearly mask-free campaign rallies in Wonderland.
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