In his first interview since ending his re-election bid, President Biden expressed doubt Wednesday that there would be a peaceful transfer of power if former President Donald Trump loses the 2024 election.
“If Trump wins, no, I’m not confident at all,” the 81-year-old president told “CBS News Sunday Morning” before quickly catching himself.
Biden speaking during his first interview since dropping out of the race.CBS Sunday Morning
“I mean if Trump loses I’m not confident at all,” Biden clarified in the interview taped Wednesday at the White House and that will air in its entirety on Sunday.
“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously,” the president said of the Republican nominee. “All the stuff about if we lose, there’ll be a bloodbath, it’s a stolen – look what they’re trying to do now in the local election districts where people count the votes, putting people in place in states where they’re going to count the votes.”
“You can’t love your country, only when you win,” Biden argued.
Biden spoke on “CBS News Sunday Morning.”CBS Sunday Morning
During a March campaign rally in Ohio, Trump, 78, predicted a “bloodbath” in the auto industry if he doesn’t win the November election.
However, the line drew biting headlines casting Trump’s rhetoric as a warning of a literal “bloodbath” if he loses the race.
“This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence,” Biden-Harris spokesperson James Singer said in a statement at the time.
“He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”
Trump was directly asked in his June debate with Biden if he would accept the results of the November election, to which he responded that he would “if it’s a fair and legal and good election.”
“I tell you what, I doubt you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner,” Biden shot back at the debate. “The idea if you lose again, you accepting anything, you can’t stand the loss, something snapped in you when you lost the last time.”
Biden withdrew from the race a little over a month after his disastrous June 20 debate against Trump.
The president quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who locked up the Democratic nomination earlier this week and selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Harris, 59, has not given any interviews or done any press conferences since taking over for Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.
