President Donald Trump's continued refusal to provide a peaceful transition of power if he loses the election is an "invitation to violence," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Thursday.
The Maine independent also told CNN's "New Day" that he disagrees with much of what Trump says and does, but the president's refusals on the transition are "incredibly dangerous" and are the "worst" actions he has seen him do.
"The peaceful transfer of power is really at the essence of who we are as a country," King told show host John Berman. "Of all the things he's done that I disagree with, this is the worst. Our system is based upon trust. It's based upon confidence that when the election is over, there may be a recount, but ultimately, you have a winner and a loser and life goes on. He's challenging that basic premise."
Trump appeared to suggest Wednesday, if states got "rid of" the unsolicited mailing of ballots, there would be no concern about fraud or peaceful transfers of power.
King noted, in 1960, Richard Nixon conceded, and in 2000, Al Gore stepped back even when they had opportunities to keep fighting about the results because they thought a continued battle would be bad for the United States, but Trump will not do that.
"That's the furthest thing from his mind," King said. "Apparently holding onto power is the only thing.
King also pointed out the election results will only be the "halftime score" on election night.
"Because of the huge number of absentee and mail-in ballots, we're not going to have a final count, and the president is already setting up a situation where he's saying, if that happens, it's rigged," King said. "That's nonsense. In Maine, we often have elections where one candidate is leading in the early return areas and then the small towns come in and it flips.
"And you don't know that until the next morning or when I was elected governor. I didn't know until 11 or 12 the next day. So this is really incredibly dangerous stuff."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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