‘We want to get rid of the ballots’: Trump won’t commit to peaceful transfer of power, pushing voter fraud claims instead

Donald Trump would not commit to peacefully transferring power to Joe Biden if he loses the election in November, instead saying election officials must “get rid” of any illegal ballots.

“We’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster,” Mr Trump said at a press conference on Wednesday, a continuation of his repeated attacks on the integrity of expanded mail-in voting programmes states have rolled out amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The reporter who asked the initial question pressed Mr Trump.

“Do you commit to making sure that there’s a peaceful transferral of power?” the reporter asked.

“We want to get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation,” Mr Trump replied said.

“The ballots are out of control. You know it,” he said, to which the reporter objected, “No, I don’t know it.”

Mr Trump continued: “And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than everybody else.”