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Trump Hedges on Committing to Peaceful Transfer of Power

Steve Herman

   WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Donald Trumphasdeclined to confirm
   heiswilling to agree to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses his
   November 3bid for re-electiontoDemocratic Party nominee Joe Biden.

   "We'regoing to have to see what happens," said the president in
   response to a reporter's question during a White House news
   conferenceon Wednesday evening.'¯"I've been complaining very strongly
   about the ballotsand the ballots are a disaster."

   Trump, without evidence, has repeatedly predicted massive fraud
   withtens of millions ofmail-in ballots, which Democrats have encouraged
   amid the coronavirus pandemic.

   "We want to have -- get rid of the ballots," continued the president,
   explaining if that happens "there won't be a transfer, frankly;
   there'll be a continuation."'¯
   '¯
   Biden, after his campaign plane landed in Delaware on Wednesday
   evening, was askedto respond toTrump's remarks.

   "What country are we in? I'm being facetious,"saidthe former vice
   president."I said what country are we in? Look, he says the most
   irrational things. I don't know what to say."

   At least one of Trump's fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate,
   expressed alarm about the president's remark.

   "Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without
   that, there is Belarus," said Senator Mitt Romney of Utah on
   Twitter."Any suggestion that a president might not respect this
   Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable."

     Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power;
     without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president
     might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable
     and unacceptable.
     -- Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) [1]September 24, 2020

   Romney was his party's nominee for president in 2012 and has been one
   of the few Republicans in the Senate to occasionally take issue with
   Trump's rhetoricand actions.

   "There is no question that he means exactly what he said," Congressman
   Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on
   MSNBCabout the president's comment, adding that it was time for those
   serving in the Trump administration "to resign" in protest.

   One of the country's oldest constitutional rights groups also weighed
   in.

   "The peaceful transfer of power is essential to a functioning
   democracy. This statement from the president of the United States
   should trouble every American," said David Cole, the national legal
   director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

   Earlier Wednesday,Trumpsaid he thinks theNovemberelection "will end up
   in the Supreme Court and I think it's very important that we have nine
   justices."

   The presidentplans to announce hisSupreme Courtnominee on Saturdayto
   fill the seat of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died this past
   Friday.

   If the Senate confirms the president's nomineebefore the electionthat
   would give the conservative winga 6-3 majority on the court.

   "This scam that the Democrats are pulling, it's a scam, the scam will
   be before the United States Supreme Court, and I think having a 4-4
   situation is not a good situation,"said Trump.

   The president has repeatedly expressed concern about plans bya number
   ofstates, including California,Colorado, Hawaii,Nevada, New
   Jersey,Oregon, Utah,Vermontand
   Washington,toautomaticallydispatch'¯mail-in ballots'¯to all state
   residents for the election.

   Benjamin Ginsberg,atop election lawyer who has represented four
   Republican presidential candidates,has been quoted this
   monthsayingTrump'sprediction of fraud with such ballotslacks evidence.

   "The president's words make his and the Republican Party's rhetoric
   look less like sincere concern -- and more like transactional hypocrisy
   designed to provide an electoral advantage," Ginsberg wrote in a
   [2]Washington Post opinion article."And they come as Republicans trying
   to make their cases in courts must deal with the basic truth that four
   decades of dedicated investigation have produced only isolated
   incidents of election fraud."

References

   1. https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1308932877229477890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/

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