Trump's plan to stay in power: 'Get rid of the ballots'

Donald Trump has been escalating his attacks on voting ahead of the November election, but at Wednesday’s press conference, he called for getting “rid of the ballots” altogether.

“Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here, today, for a peaceful transferral of power after the election?” a reporter in the White House press corps asked.

Trump refused to make such a commitment.

“Well, we’ll have to see what happens, you know that,” he said. “I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”

The reporter noted that “people are rioting” and again asked Trump whether he would commit to a “peaceful transferral of power.”

Again, Trump would make no such commitment. Instead, he called for essentially eliminating the election.

“We want to have — get rid of the ballots, and we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly,” Trump said. “There will be a continuation.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump casually suggested mailmen are “involved” in a massive but vague scheme to do something nefarious with mail-in ballots. And for months, he and his campaign have been filing lawsuits in states around the country to try to prevent people from being able to vote by mail.

As part of his increasingly threatening rhetoric about the election, Trump insisted Tuesday that he needs to have nine justices on the Supreme Court before the election because of the “tens of millions of ballots” being sent to voters, suggesting he will challenge the results of the election if he does not win it and wants to ensure a strong conservative majority on the highest court.

His call Wednesday night to essentially abandon voting altogether and assure there is no transfer of power, peaceful of otherwise, is his strongest threat yet.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.