President Donald Trump on Wednesday declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. 3 election to Democratic rival Joe Biden.
“We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump, a Republican, told reporters at the White House when asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer.
The president has sought repeatedly to cast doubt, preemptively, on the legitimacy of the election because of his concerns about mail-in voting, which Democrats have encouraged during the pandemic.
“The ballots are a disaster,” Trump said.
Voters of all stripes are being encouraged to vote by mail-in ballot across the country. The Trump campaign has sent out campaign literature in states about mail-in voting and encouraging participation.
Trump has cast doubt on the integrity of the election, saying without evidence that the use of mail-in balloting during the coronavirus pandemic would lead to fraud.
The president also said on Wednesday he thinks the 2020 election will end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, adding that is why it was important to have nine justices.
He said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, would not even have to hold a hearing for the Supreme Court nominee and that the process would go quickly.
Trump is moving quickly to nominate a successor to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, and his fellow Republicans in the Senate say they could hold a vote before the election. That would seal a 6-3 conservative majority on the court.
Trump has said he will announce his pick from among a field of five women on Saturday.
