WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to guarantee that he will transfer power if he loses the November election, earning scorn from his Democratic challenger Joe Biden and even from within his own party.
“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump responded when asked at a White House press conference whether he is committed to the most basic tenet of democratic rule in the United States — the peaceful handover of power upon a change of president.
Biden, who holds a steady lead over the Republican incumbent in opinion polls ahead of the November 3 vote, expressed incredulity.
“What country are we in?” the former vice president said, when asked about Trump’s comment by reporters.
“Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say.”
Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent but rare party critic of Trump, went further, saying that any hesitation on the core constitution guarantee was “unthinkable and unacceptable.”
“Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus,” he tweeted
