Biden, Harris warn of Trump threat to democracy as election looms
WASHINGTON
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he is "not confident" Donald Trump would concede peacefully if he loses the U.S. election, as the Republican's rival Kamala Harris warned a Trump victory would usher in a lawless administration set on curtailing Americans' freedoms.
Trump has been impeached twice and indicted twice over various alleged attempts to cheat in the 2020 election — which he still has not acknowledged he lost — and was convicted of 34 felonies over a hush money scheme to deceive voters in 2016.
His false claims of widespread fraud in 2020 preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol — and the wounding of more than 100 police officers — by a violent mob determined to prevent the certification of his defeat.
"If Trump loses, I'm not confident at all," Biden told U.S. network CBS after he was asked if he expected a peaceful transfer of power in 2025.
"He means what he says. We don't take him seriously," Biden warned. "He means it."
The president's remarks, which air fully on Sunday, came soon after Harris had sounded the alarm over Trump's conduct in the opposite scenario — victory for the 78-year-old billionaire.
Speaking to a crowd in Eau Claire, Wisconsin as part of a multi-day tour of swing states, she used the former president's own words — as well as his felony convictions — to argue that a second Trump term would be a disaster for America.
She pointed to his vow to be a dictator "on day one," his threats to weaponize the Justice Department against his political enemies and his 2022 comment demanding the "termination" of constitutional provisions over his 2020 election defeat.
"Someone who suggests that we should terminate the constitution of the United States should never again have a chance to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States," Harris said, exhorting Americans to reject the "chaos, fear and hate" of Trumpism.
Harris reprised the theme hours later at a rally in Detroit, where she called herself and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, "joyful warriors" in the White House battle.
The 59-year-old vice president was on day two of a blitz of the most closely-fought election battlegrounds as she seeks to capitalize on a surging excitement since she replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket in July.
Harris and Walz will take their double act to further stops through Saturday in racially diverse "Sun Belt" states Arizona and Nevada.
'Far worse'
In Wisconsin and Michigan, they sketched out a vision of future prosperity for the middle class, repeatedly speaking of their national pride and making a virtue of the patriotism more associated with Republican rhetoric in the pre-Trump era.
But Harris cautioned that allowing Trump back into office would take the country backwards.
Recalling that while she took on frauds and sexual abusers as California's attorney general, Trump had been found liable for the sexual assault of a New York writer and had been both convicted and sued for millions of dollars for fraud.
"In this campaign, I'll tell you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week," she said.
The rallies came a day after Harris and Walz held a huge event in front of a raucous crowd of 14,000 in crucial swing state Pennsylvania.
It was the biggest of the year — until Michigan, where Walz said he had been told the event at an airport, with Air Force Two as a dramatic backdrop, was "the largest rally of the campaign."
In Detroit, Harris found herself repeatedly interrupted by protesters dissatisfied with Biden administration policy on Gaza.
"If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking," she said, her expression hardening as she sought to quell the disruptions.
Seen initially as an outsider for the VP pick, Walz enjoyed viral success in distilling Democrats' attack lines against Republicans into a relatable one-word characterization — "weird" — that propelled him up Harris's shortlist.
The 60-year-old former Army National Guard officer railed against the "dangerous and backward beliefs" of Trump and his running mate, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, leading a chant of the Harris campaign slogan "We're not going back."
Trump has declined to focus on his opponents' vulnerabilities on policy, instead favoring personal attacks against Harris that have had little impact on her rise in polls.
She has a 51-48 percent lead over Trump in the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist survey and has edged ahead by 0.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics nationwide average of polls.
The organization had Trump three points ahead of Biden when the president made way for Harris, 17 days ago.