Democrats jittery about prospect of Trump contesting general election results

“Sir, what is your plan if Trump loses but refuses to concede based on allegations by his supporters of irregularities, and he refuses to step down as president based on those allegations?” the voter inquired on CNN to some laughs from the studio audience.

Biden, 77, told the man, Deveaux Stockton, an area trial lawyer, it was a “serious concern.”

“Did you ever think in your lifetime, no matter how young or old you are, any person would be able to ask that question and be taken seriously?” the two-term vice president said. “Our democracy is at risk.”

Delaware’s 36-year senator added, given the way Trump had undercut the military, the intelligence community, and the FBI during his four years in office, he had “no worry about him being escorted out of the White House” if he declined to vacate the building on Jan. 20, 2021, or beyond.

While the exchange evoked a ripple of laughter from the crowd, versions of Stockton’s inquiry seem to be on voters’ minds across the country, even if he would lack the requisite constitutional authority, wouldn’t be able to marshal law enforcement and other agencies to come to his defense, and as a private citizen would feel the full weight of justice system.

Pete Buttigieg, 38, was pressed on the same issue three times over a two-day period in Nevada earlier this month.

“If he won’t leave — I guess if he’s willing to do chores we could work something out,” the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor told a man in Reno, who riffed off a similar question put forward by late-night host Bill Maher on multiple occasions.

Buttigieg was posed with similar scenarios in Carson City later that morning, as well as in Las Vegas the following day.

Trump’s norm-breaking administration was showcased in the weeks after he was acquitted of impeachment, firing, reassigning, or not objecting to resignations from key officials who testified during the House investigation into whether he abused his power or obstructed Congress amid the Ukraine-Biden affair. His efforts to help allies, such as political trickster Roger Stone, with the judicial system, have also rattled establishment figures.

The emboldened White House occupant has himself joked about not giving up the Oval Office after eight years, a violation of three articles of the Constitution that govern term lengths, even amid the impeachment investigation.

“A lot of them say, ‘You know he’s not leaving,'” he told the Israeli-American Council National Summit of the media in December, extrapolating jokes made by loyalists such as former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and faith leader Jerry Falwell Jr. “So now we have to start thinking about that, because it’s not a bad idea.”

But in the meantime, Buttigieg, for one, is trying to allay any Democratic anxiety.

“At the end of the day, there’s only one president. But I do believe this is one of the reasons why it’s important that we not just eke out a win,” he said in Reno, later adding, “I think we want to set a goal of winning big enough that this election is way beyond cheating distance and that Trumpism goes into the history books too.”