He is recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote, as he scoffs at polls showing him lagging behind Democrat Joe Biden.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump is refusing to publicly commit to accepting the results of the upcoming White House election, recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote, as he scoffs at polls showing him lagging behind Democrat Joe Biden. Trump says it\u2019s too early to make such an ironclad guarantee.
\u201cI have to see. Look\u2026 I have to see,\u201d Trump told moderator Chris Wallace during a wide-ranging interview on \u201dFox News Sunday.\u201d \u201cNo, I\u2019m not going to just say yes. I\u2019m not going to say no, and I didn\u2019t last time either.\u201d The Biden campaign responded: \u201cThe American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.\u201d
Trump also hammered the Pentagon brass for favoring renaming bases that honor Confederate military leaders \u2014 a drive for change spurred by the national debate about race after George Floyd\u2019s death. \u201cI don\u2019t care what the military says,\u201d the commander in chief said.
The president described the nation\u2019s top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as \u201ca little bit of an alarmist\u201d about the coronavirus pandemic, and Trump stuck to what he had said back in February \u2014 that the virus is \u201cgoing to disappear.\u201d On Fox, he said, \u201cI\u2019ll be right eventually.\u201d The United States tops the global death toll list with over 140,000 and confirmed infections, with 3.7 million.
It is remarkable that a sitting president would express less than complete confidence in the American democracy\u2019s electoral process. But for Trump, it comes from his insurgent playbook of four years ago, when in the closing stages of his race against Hillary Clinton, he said he would not commit to honoring the election results if the Democrat won.
Pressed during an October 2016 debate about whether he would abide by the voters\u2019 will, Trump responded that he would \u201ckeep you in suspense.\u201d The president\u2019s remarks to Fox are certain to fuel conversation on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers had already been airing concerns in private about a scenario in which Trump disputes the election results.
Trump has seen his presidential popularity erode over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and in the aftermath of nationwide protests centered on racial injustice that erupted after Floyd\u2019s death in Minneapolis nearly two months.
Trump contends that a series of polls that show his popularity eroding and Biden holding an advantage are faulty. He believes Republican voters are underrepresented in such surveys.
\u201cFirst of all, I\u2019m not losing, because those are fake polls,\u201d Trump said in the taped interview, which aired Sunday. \u201cThey were fake in 2016 and now they\u2019re even more fake. The polls were much worse in 2016.\u201d
Trump was frequently combative with Wallace in defending his administration\u2019s response to the pandemic, weighing in on the Black Lives Matter movement and trying to portray Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, as lacking the mental prowess to serve as president.
Among the issues discussed was the push for wholesale changes in policing that has swept across the nation. Trump said he could understand why Black Americans are upset about how police use force disproportionately against them.
\u201cOf course I do. Of course I do,\u201d the president said, adding his usual refrain that \u201cwhites are also killed, too.\u201d
He said he was \u201cnot offended either by Black Lives Matter,\u201d but at the same time defended the Confederate flag, a symbol of the racism of the past, and said those who \u201cproudly have their Confederate flags, they\u2019re not talking about racism.\u201d
\u201cThey love their flag, it represents the South, they like the South. That\u2019s freedom of speech. And you know, the whole thing with \u2018cancel culture,\u2019 we can\u2019t cancel our whole history. We can\u2019t forget that the North and the South fought. We have to remember that, otherwise we\u2019ll end up fighting again. You can\u2019t just cancel all,\u201d Trump said.
Wallace challenged Trump on some of his claims and called out the president at time, such as when Trump falsely asserted that \u201cBiden wants to defund the police.\u201d The former vice president has not joined with activists rallying behind that banner. He has proposed more money for police, conditioned to improvements in their practices.
Trump continues to insist that Biden \u201csigned a charter\u201d with one of his primary rivals on the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. At one point in the interview, Trump calls on aides to bring him documentation to support his assertion. Trump, however, is unable to point to language from a Biden-Sanders task force policy document released this month by the Biden campaign.
Trump stood behind his pledge to veto a $740 billion defense bill over a requirement that the Defense Department change the names of bases named for Confederate military leaders. That list includes Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Benning in Georgia.
The president argued there were no viable alternatives if the government ever tried. \u201cWe\u2019re going to name it after the Reverend Al Sharpton?\u201d Trump asked, referring to a prominent civil rights leader. \u201cWhat are you going to name it?\u201d
Trump,74, stuck to a campaign charge that Biden,77, is unable to handle the rigors of the White House because of his age. As for polls showing the incumbent is trailing, Trump noted he was thought to be behind for much of the 2016 contest. \u201cI won\u2019t lose,\u201d he predicted.
The president and top advisors have long accused Biden of using the pandemic as an excuse to stay in \u201chis basement\u201d in his Delaware home. Biden has indeed shifted much of his campaign online, but frequently travels in Delaware and Pennsylvania, organizing speeches and small gatherings with voters and community leaders that are within driving distance of his home. Biden\u2019s campaign says it will begin resuming normal travel and campaign activities, but only when health officials and state and local authorities say it is safe.
Questioned about the coronavirus, Trump chided Fauci, the National Institutes of Health expert, and repeated false claims that anybody could get a test and that increased testing was the only reason that the U. S. was seeing more cases. When Wallace cited criticism about the lack of a national plan to confront the virus, Trump said, \u201cI take responsibility always for everything because it\u2019s ultimately my job, too,\u201d and claimed, \u201cI supplied everybody.\u201d
Case are rising because people are infecting each other more than they were when most everyone was hunkered down. The percentage of tests coming back positive for the virus has been on the rise across nearly the entire country.<\/p>\n