Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has painted his vision of a potential scenario where Donald Trump would refuse to relinquish power after losing the 2020 presidential election in November, claiming he is certain top military figures would intervene, reports The Hill.
Appearing on the Daily Show, Joe Biden said:
“I am absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.”
Offering the opinion, Biden cited recent statements by former senior military officials criticising Donald Trump's response to nationwide protests sweeping the country over the death of African-American George Floyd.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a speech released on 11 June that he regretted walking with Donald Trump from the White House to St. John's Church last week after authorities dispersed protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets near the White House.
"I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” said Milley.
In his conversation with host Trevor Noah, Biden opened up on his greatest concern regarding the upcoming vote, saying he feared the incumbent president would “try to steal this election”.
"It's my greatest concern, my single greatest concern: This president is going to try to steal this election," said Biden.
Skirting the issue of just how exactly Trump might, in his opinion, try to “cheat”, the former Vice President cited Trump’s recent linking of mail-in ballots to potential voter fraud, and his accusations that Democrats were trying to rig the election.
So ridiculous to see Twitter trying to make the case that Mail-In Ballots are not subject to FRAUD. How stupid, there are examples, & cases, all over the place. Our election process will become badly tainted & a laughingstock all over the World. Tell that to your hater @yoyoel
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
On 28 May Trump said the whole world would view mail-in voting in the US as laughable if such means of voting were allowed, as fraught with “fraud and abuse”.
Biden’s current statements drew a response from the Trump campaign on 11 June, with Tim Murtaugh, the communications director, saying:
“This is just another brainless conspiracy theory from Joe Biden as he continues to try to undermine confidence in our elections… President Trump has been clear that he will accept the results of the 2020 election.”
Biden and Trump to Face Off
Earlier, Joe Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, which sets him up to face off against the current incumbent, Donald Trump.
“It was an honour to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded… I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party,” Biden said in a statement on 5 June.
A late-Friday Associated Press tally had showed that former-US Vice President Joe Biden crossed the threshold of 1,991 delegates required to be formally named the presidential nominee, securing 1,993.
Biden assure voters that each day before the election would be spent to "earn the votes of Americans all across this great country".
The Democratic presidential nominee and his vice-presidential running mate are to be officially announced at the Democratic National Convention set for 17-20 August, with the presidential election to be held on 3 November 2020.
Trump Polling Deficits
As current surveys have been showing Trump trailing Biden, recently the US President and his campaign sent a cease and desist letter to CNN demanding that the network retract and apologise for a “stunt and phony” national poll from 8 June conducted by SSRS that showed him lagging behind the ex-vice President by 14 points.
A lawyer for CNN found the Trump campaign’s letter “factually and legally baseless”, dismissing demands to retract the poll.
Meanwhile, according to a new poll released on 11 June, Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over Trump in Florida, where the president changed his permanent residence to last year.
The poll from the Republican firm Cygnal was conducted from 18-30 May based on responses from 881 likely Florida voters.
It shows Biden with 47 percent support among likely voters, with Donald Trump trailing by approximately 3 points, at around 44 percent.
