Icon: enlarge
Republican Mitch McConnell: "The November 3rd Winner Will Be Inaugurated January 20th"
Photo: JIM LO SCALZO / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
It would be an outrageous process, a scenario familiar from autocracies: a head of government does not recognize an election defeat, clings to his office - with uncertain consequences for the country.
In the USA, of all places, with its long democratic tradition, this threatens to happen soon.
At least President Donald Trump repeatedly flirted with not wanting to voluntarily evacuate the White House in the event of a failure in the November election.
It was only on Wednesday that Trump refused to guarantee a peaceful handover of government power at a press conference.
"We have to wait and see what happens," said Trump when asked by a reporter whether he would guarantee a peaceful handover in the event of "victory, defeat or tie" in the election "here and today".
The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, now assured that there would be an orderly transition in the event of a change of government.
"The November 3rd winner will be put into office on January 20th. There will be an orderly transition, just as there has been every four years since 1792," McConnell wrote on Twitter.
In his response to the increase in postal voting, Trump warned against fraud again without providing any evidence.
The president said that without electoral fraud, he believed that there would be a continuation of his government rather than a change of power.
Trump is running for his second term in November.
According to recent polls, however, his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, is favored.
This said in Wilmington, Delaware, according to reporters about Trump's testimony: "He says the most irrational things. I don't know what to say."
The Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Trump's statement on Twitter with the words: "You are not a dictator, and America will not permit you to be one."
- He is not a dictator and America will not allow him to be one.
Icon: The mirror
kev / dpa
