It’s the stuff of Democratic fever dreams. President Trump loses the November election to Democratic rival Joe Biden but refuses to cede office when his term ends on Jan. 21 at 12 p.m.
There’s no actual evidence for this claim, but it’s one Democrats are making nonetheless. It’s an effort led by Biden, his party’s presumptive nominee.
Biden Wednesday night told The Daily Show host Trevor Noah that Trump is “going to try and steal this election.”
Biden, who was President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years and a 36-year Delaware senator before that, referenced Trump’s opposition to mail-in voting, due to what the president calls concerns about voter fraud.
“I promise you: I am absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch,” Biden said, in conjecture about what would happen if he won and Trump refused to depart the executive mansion.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany dismissed Biden’s comments as a “ridiculous proposition.”
“Leave it to Democrats to go out there and grandstand and level these conspiracy theories,” she said Thursday.
It wasn’t the first time Biden raised concerns about Trump losing the election and potentially refusing to leave office. During a virtual fundraiser in April, Biden predicted that Trump will try to postpone the election because “that’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
“Mark my words: I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow; come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said. “Imagine threatening not to fund the post office. Now, what in God’s name is that about? Other than trying to let the word out that he’s going to do all he can to make it very hard for people to vote.”
Biden later echoed those remarks later that month, saying he doesn’t know if people can trust that “this election will happen fairly and on time.”
Although Republicans are happy to dismiss the comments as bluster or efforts to gin up the Democratic Party’s base, many aren’t taking Biden’s comments as a joke. Several Democrats running for reelection have already begun fundraising off the prospect that if Trump loses, he’ll simply refuse to acknowledge the results of the election.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson wrote in an email to supporters in March that he will “consider an emergency lawsuit,” if Trump delays the election.
Virtually every election law expert has said there is no way to move the presidential election, and Trump has provided no indication he’s interested in trying to do so.
