President Joe Biden on Friday expressed concern that Donald Trump and his allies might instigate political violence after the election if Trump loses to Kamala Harris.
“Two separate questions,” Biden said when asked at a White House press conference whether he had confidence the election would be free, fair, and peaceful. “I’m confident it’ll be free and fair. I don’t know whether it’ll be peaceful.”
Biden’s appearance at the daily White House briefing was a surprise—it was the first of his entire presidency.
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The president further explained his concerns, saying, “The things that Trump has said, and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.”
His comments were a clear allusion to the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when insurrectionists sought to stop the certification of the election results.
Biden also noted that vice presidential candidate JD Vance had not committed to accepting the results, and did not seem to accept that Trump lost in 2020.
During his debate with Tim Walz, the Republican vice presidential nominee refused to give a straight answer on that question, and in a 2022 video unearthed on Thursday, Vance said “yep” when asked if Trump had defeated Biden in 2020.
Trump’s claims of election fraud have led to a federal indictment against him in Washington, and state charges in Georgia. Just this week, special counsel Jack Smith issued a filing detailing new evidence to back up his election subversion charges against the former president. Trump is likely to face trial after the election if he loses, but would likely have the charges dropped if he wins.
On the campaign trail this year, Trump has repeatedly suggested he wants to drive so much turnout that the election becomes “too big to rig.” And he has issued ominous warnings about what could happen if he loses.
“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s gonna be the least of it,” he warned during a March rally in Ohio. “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Such rhetoric has Biden worried. “I’m concerned about what they’re going to do,” he said Friday.
Asked about the comments during a stop surveying hurricane damage in Georgia, Trump told reporters he didn't know what the president said.
“I only can hope that it’s going to be free and fair and I think, in this state, it will be,” Trump said. “And I hope in every state it will be.”
