WASHINGTON, Sept 24, 2020 
– US President Donald
Trump on Wednesday refused to guarantee that he will transfer
power if he loses the November election, earning scorn from his
Democratic challenger Joe Biden and even from within his own
party.
“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump
responded when asked at a White House press conference whether he
is committed to the most basic tenet of democratic rule in the
United States — the peaceful handover of power upon a change of
president.
Biden, who holds a steady lead over the Republican incumbent
in opinion polls ahead of the November 3 vote, expressed
incredulity.
“What country are we in?” the former vice president said,
when asked about Trump’s comment by reporters.
“Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what
to say.”
Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent but rare party
critic of Trump, went further, saying that any hesitation on the
core constitution guarantee was “unthinkable and unacceptable.”
“Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of
power; without that, there is Belarus,” he tweeted.
– ‘Get rid’ of ballots –
Trump followed up his remarks — unprecedented in modern
times for a US president — by resuming his near daily complaint
about the fairness of the election.
Apparently referring to the increased use of mail-in ballots
due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said: “You know that I’ve been
complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a
disaster.”
Trump frequently claims that mail-in ballots are vulnerable
to mass fraud and are being encouraged by Democrats to rig the
election.
However, there is no evidence that ballots sent through the
postal service have ever led to significant fraud in US elections.
At the press conference, Trump seemed to suggest annulling
what are expected to be the huge numbers of mailed-in ballots,
noting that in such a scenario, he would remain in power.
“Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful —
there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation,”
he said.
Trump’s latest insistence that there cannot be a free and
fair presidential election came as pressure mounts over his plan
to put a new, right-leaning justice on the Supreme Court.
Trump is set to nominate a replacement on Saturday for the
late liberal-leaning justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last
week.
His Republican Party, which has a majority in the Senate, is
then expected to quickly confirm the nominee.
If they succeed, the nine-justice court would then likely
have a strongly pro-conservative bent for years to come.
Democrats are crying foul, saying that the process should wait
until the results of the election are known, allowing the winner
to shape the Supreme Court.
With Trump and the Republicans mounting a series of court
challenges against the use of mail-in ballots, the chances of a
contested election result are considered high.
On Wednesday, Trump said he thinks the election “will end up
in the Supreme Court.”