In his first interview since dropping out of the election last month and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden said he believes Trump is a threat to democracy whether he wins or loses in November.
“If he wins this nomination—excuse me, this election—watch what happens,” Biden told Robert Costa of CBS News. “He’s a genuine danger to American security.”
“There’s little regard by the MAGA Republicans for the political institutions,” Biden said later in the interview.
That also includes democratic elections. As we reported, many Trump VP hopefuls—including the winner, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)—openly repeated the disproven election myths that Trump has stubbornly clung to since his 2020 loss.
“If Trump loses,” Biden told Costa, “I’m not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power, he said. “He means what he says—we don’t take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about, ‘If we lose, it’ll be a bloodbath.'” (Trump has also said: “If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure that you’ll ever have another election in this country.”)
“You can’t love your country only when you win,” Biden added. The president proved that with his decision to drop out of the race to give Democrats the best chance of “maintaining this democracy,” as he described it on Sunday. “We must, must, must defeat Trump,” Biden added in the interview. Of Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), he said, “I think it’s a hell of a team.”
The Republican nominee, on the other hand, has already proven he’s a threat to American democracy whether or not he’s in the White House.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.