WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to Senator Bernie Sanders, the upcoming election is not simply Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, but authoritarianism versus democracy.
The senator delivered a blistering address on Thursday following the president’s comments that he would have to “see what happens” before guaranteeing a peaceful transfer of power should he lose in November.
Sanders claimed the president is attempting “massive voter suppression” as he finds himself behind in many polls.
“(Trump) and his Republican colleagues are doing everything they can to make it harder and harder for people to vote,” Sanders said. “In addition, he is sowing the seeds of chaos, confusion and conspiracy theories by casting doubt on the integrity of this election and, if he loses, justifying why he should remain in office.”
The president has long maintained that the influx on mail-in ballots will affect the outcome of the election, despite little evidence from experts to support his theory.
On Wednesday, the president took his claims even further when he seemingly would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose come November 3.
“Well we’re going to have to see what happens, you know that. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster,” Trump told reporters from the White House. When pressed on whether the president would set an example by conceding should he lose, Trump doubled down on his claims that mail-in voting will affect the outcome of the election.
“We want to get rid of the ballots and….there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation,” he said.
“That’s not his choice,” Senator Sanders said of the president’s comments the day prior. “That’s for the American people to determine. Let us be very clear. There is nothing in our constitution or in our laws that give Donald Trump the privilege of deciding whether or not he will step aside if he loses.
“In the United States the president does not determine who can or cannot vote and what ballots will be counted.That may be what his friend Putin does in Russia. It may be what is done in other authoritarian countries. But it is not and will not be done in America. This is a democracy,” Sanders continued.
The senator also called on his Republican colleagues to condemn the president’s statement—a move which some have already taken, albeit with less pointed language than Sanders.
“To my Republican colleagues in the Congress, please do not continue to tell the American people how much you love America if, at this critical moment, you are not prepared to stand up to defend American democracy and our way of life,” he said.
Congressional Republicans largely stopped short of criticizing Trump directly. Instead, they sought to reassure the American voters that there would be a peaceful transition if Trump loses.
“The winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky wrote on Twitter. “There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, “If Republicans lose we will accept the result." Although he suggested there the result might be disputed by adding, "If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Joe Biden, I will accept that result.”
Sen. Mitt Romeny, R-Utah, however, took a harsher tone, saying: “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.”
Donald Trump’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, also weighed in on the president’s comments late Wednesday upon landing in Wilmington, Delaware.
“What country are we in?” Biden asked incredulously, adding: “I’m being facetious. Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say about it. But it doesn’t surprise me.”
Indeed, it was not the first time Trump implied that he may not listen to the outcome of the election.
In an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace in early January, the host asked Trump point-blank if he would accept the election results should he lose.
“I have to see. Look, you – I have to see. No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either,” Trump said at the time, also adding: “I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do.”
It’s a frequent talking point for the president in the leadup to the election, but experts say there is little to no evidence to prove widespread election fraud.
A study from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found only 491 instances of mail-in voter fraud between 2000 and 2012 — a period when billions of absentee ballots were cast. In 2017, the center ranked the risk of ballot fraud at a miniscule 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.