Donald Trump is not looking to make any promises about a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the November election.
In fact, as the New York Times reports, when directly asked by a reporter if he would “commit here today for a peaceful transferral of power after the November election,” the impeached president brushed aside the question, stating that “we’re going to have to see what happens.”
Instead of using the moment to act presidential and call for an orderly election process, Trump once again lashed out at mail-in ballots and the mail-in voting process that has become crucial amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster,” Trump told the reporter.
Trump appears to believe that if mail-in ballots were not in the equation, there would be no need for a transfer of power.
“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 president said when pressed by the reporter.
Trump has spent the last few months raving and ranting about mail-in ballots, a method which he has claimed leads to wide-spread voter fraud, an unsubstantiated claim that has been addressed and debunked. He has gone so far as to even encourage voters in North Carolina to test the mail-in system by voting twice…which is illegal and can result in felony charges.
However, despite his apparent disdain for the vote-by-mail process, both Trump and first lady Melania Trump requested an absentee ballot to vote by mail for Florida’s primary election back in August.
Of course, Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power drew widespread criticism, especially from Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently challenging Trump for the White House.
“What country are we in?” Biden quipped. “I’m being facetious. Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say about it. But it doesn’t surprise me.”