US President Donald Trump declined on Wednesday to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November 3 election to Democratic rival Joe Biden and said he expected the election battle to end up before the Supreme Court.
“We’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump, a Republican, told reporters at the White House when asked whether he would commit to transferring power.
The president, who trails Biden in national opinion polls, has repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election, asserting without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to fraud and a “rigged” outcome.
“The ballots are a disaster,” Trump said.
Democrats have encouraged voting by mail as a way to cast ballots safely during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of Americans, including much of the military, have cast absentee ballots by mail for years without problems.
In 2016,…