Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden predicted on Thursday that President Donald Trump will attempt to subvert the rule of law and postpone the 2020 presidential election in order to secure a victory for himself.
The former vice president made the remarks during an online fundraiser with several celebrities on Thursday evening, and the event was attended by a Biden campaign pool reporter, according to Politico.
“Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” said Biden, according to the report. “That’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
In response to the former vice president’s accusation against Trump, even left-leaning outlets have pushed back against the idea, noting that the time of the election is enshrined through federal statute and cannot be delayed by the executive branch.
“Because of the separation of power built into our government, the President doesn’t have the ability to simply nullify or ignore a federal law created by Congress. Only Congress can do that,” wrote CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza. “That’s a Constitutional bridge too far, even for this President.”
“As the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden surely knows that Trump cannot and will not delay the election,” echoed Washington Post opinion columnist Henry Olson, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “Nonetheless, Biden chose to taint the president essentially with a charge of treason.”
“Biden says he wants to heal and unify the country. That’s a noble aspiration, but he can’t unify a nation that he intentionally divides by accusing his political opponent of traitorous intent,” Olson wrote later in the op-ed. “Biden says he’s a better man than Trump. Comments such as these suggest that maybe he’s not.”
Later in the fundraiser, Biden said that the United States needed to find a way to ensure the election can continue in the case of additional coronavirus outbreaks or foreign interference, reports The Hill.
“We have to figure out how we are going to conduct a full and fair and safe election in November and no one should have to risk their lives to cast a ballot,” remarked Biden, who later said that the Russians were planning to interfere in the November election.
In a statement to The Hill, the Trump campaign pushed back against Biden’s comments, stating that the former vice president was engaging in “incoherent” ramblings.
Biden’s remarks are the “incoherent, conspiracy theory ramblings of a lost candidate who is out of touch with reality,” said Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, reports the news agency.
“Perhaps he also missed the news that the infamous Steele Dossier, central to the Russian Collusion Hoax, was likely compiled with Russian disinformation. That’s the real Russian collusion,” said Murtaugh.
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