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- Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that President Donald Trump does not expect to have “any kind of transfer of power.”
- “It’s not going to matter, because he’s going to win on Election Day,” she told Fox News.
- The comments come after Trump caused alarm over his refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the election on Nov. 3.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power is “not going to matter” because he will win the election on Nov. 3.
“I think the president feels like many Americans, that it’s not going to matter, because he’s going to win on Election Day,” Sanders told Fox News. “And he’ll be serving another four years, so I don’t think he expects to need to have any type of transfer of power.”
The comments come after Trump on Wednesday once again cast doubt on the election, claiming that voting by mail results in electoral fraud.
“Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferal of power after the election?” a reporter asked the president during a press briefing.
“We’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I have been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster,” Trump replied. “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very transfer — we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation.”
Sanders echoed these remarks, asserting that many voters “will question that final result” of the election due to increased mail-in ballots.
Though Trump and some in his circle have spread misinformation around the issue for months, experts have frequently emphasized that such attacks on mail-in voting are baseless.
“In case anyone is unclear on the concept, in the United States of America, we do not ‘get rid of’ ballots. We count them. Counting the ballots — *all* the ballots — is the way we determine who leads our country after our elections. The only way,” Ellen Weintraub, a commissioner at the Federal Elections Commission, tweeted on Wednesday.
On Thursday, top Republicans tiptoed around outright condemning Trump’s statements, but tried to reassure voters that there would be a peaceful transfer of power.
“The winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th. There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats sounded the alarm on the implications of Trump’s rhetoric.
“I think it is terribly important that we actually listen to, and take seriously, what Donald Trump is saying,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said. “There is nothing in our Constitution or in our laws that give Donald Trump the privilege of deciding whether or not he will step aside if he loses.”
Seemingly undeterred, Trump appeared to double down on his comments later on Thursday.
“We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be,” the president said. “I don’t know that it can be with this whole situation, unsolicited ballots. They’re unsolicited — millions being sent to everybody. And we’ll see.”
The White House also moved to downplay to Trump’s comments.
“The President will accept the results of a free and fair election. He will accept the will of the American people,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told a reporter on Thursday.
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