Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is campaigning for Joe Biden on the issue of peaceful transition of power, a point opponents of President Donald Trump are using to attack the president again this election cycle.
"The bottom line is there are things that we have to do now to make sure that Biden wins," Sanders told HBO's "Real Time" with Bill Maher. "And if Trump attempts to stay in office after losing, there will be a number of plans out there to make sure that he is evicted from office."
Maher, a frequent Trump critic himself, lamented Trump's threat to the peaceful transition of power, asking about Sanders' speech this week on the topic.
"Never in a million years did I think I would have to give a speech about what we would do if a president refuses to leave office if he loses," "I never, never thought I would have to give that speech or anybody else.
"But that is where we are today."
The peaceful transition of power Democrat talking point began in 2016 during the Chris Wallace-moderated presidential debate, where Wallace mysteriously asked Trump if he would commit to a "peaceful transition of power" if he were to lose the election.
The problem was Democrats had held power under former President Barack Obama and Joe Biden, so then-candidate Trump had no power to transition. Instead, Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton refused to concede on election night, and now is calling on Joe Biden to not give up the fight for the election if he were to lose.
Also, as President Trump reminds, Obama-Biden's administration spied on the Trump campaign and transition, including keeping an investigation of the incoming president going through the Justice Department and FBI after Trump took office. Trump has noted, it led to a very unpeaceful transition of power.
"We do want a very friendly transition, but we don't want to be cheated and be stupid," Trump said this week. "And we know that there were thousands and thousands of ballots that made the difference through cheating. We're not going to stand for it."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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