Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) defended Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.
Asked if he agrees with Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) statement that a peaceful transfer of power is “fundamental to the survival of our republic,” Cotton replied: “We’ve been transferring the office of the presidency from one person to the next since 1796. I’m confident it’s going to happen again, in January 2025, after President Trump finishes his second term.”
“You’re not at all disturbed by what he’s saying about if the ballots aren’t counted?” Tapper pressed. “It’s really quite alarming to a lot of Republicans his refusal to say, ‘of course, if I lose, I will abide by a peaceful transfer of power.'”
Replied Cotton: ” What the president is saying is that he’s not going to concede in advance …. He’s since said that if there’s a clear winner, if the courts settle a contested election then of course he will. But the premise of the question that you played me is the president’s going to lose. I don’t think the president is going to lose. The president is going to win. This is just another case where the Democrats are projecting some of their own intentions onto Donald Trump. It wasn’t Donald Trump who sicced the FBI on his opponent. That was Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2016. Hillary Clinton is the one that said Joe Biden should concede under no conditions. And it was Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman who projected that if Joe Biden loses, he would recommend that California and Oregon and Washington threaten to secede from the union to change the results. The Democrats are the ones who should be pressed on whether or not they will accept a loss in November. Because it doesn’t sound to me like they will.”
