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Joe Biden says he is “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Donald Trump loses the 2024 presidential election.
The president said that Trump needed to be taken seriously over his March comments that there would be a “bloodbath” for the US car industry and country should he be defeated in November.
The White House claimed at the time that the former president was inciting violence, which he rejected.
Biden made the comments to CBS News during his first sit-down interview since officially halting his reelection campaign and handing over the reins of the Democratic party to Kamala Harris.
Asked about his confidence in a peaceful transference of power, he replied: “If Trump wins. No, I’m not confident at all.”
The president quickly corrected himself, saying: “I mean, if Trump loses, I’m not confident at all.
“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about ‘if we lose, there’ll be a bloodbath’. [The elections] have to be stolen, look what they’re trying to do now in the local election districts.
“You can’t love your country, only when you win.”
The full CBS interview with the president is due to air in full on Sunday.
On January 6 2021, just three weeks before Biden was due to be sworn in as president, Trump gave a speech to thousands of supporters in Washington DC.
Speaking from behind bulletproof glass he declared that he would "never concede" the election, which he claimed had been stolen from him, criticized the media and called for his own vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the election results.
Supporters of the former president then marched to the United States Capitol Building and stormed the building, aiming to prevent a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formalize Biden’s victory.
Within 36 hours of the insurrection, five people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes, including a police officer. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers.
The FBI says that in the 42 months since the attack on the Capitol, more than 1,470 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach, including more than 530 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
