Biden ‘not confident’ there will be a peaceful transfer of power

In his first interview since ending his re-election bid, President Biden issued a grim warning about the election in November.

In his first interview since ending his re-election bid, US President Joe Biden expressed doubt that there would be a peaceful transfer of power if former President Donald Trump loses the 2024 election.

“If Trump wins, no, I’m not confident at all,” the 81-year-old president told CBS News Sunday Morning before quickly catching himself.

“I mean if Trump loses I’m not confident at all,” Biden clarified in the interview taped on Wednesday at the White House and that will air in its entirety on Sunday local time, the New York Post reported.

“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously,” the president said of the Republican nominee.

President Biden has expressed doubt that there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses the 2024 election. Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

“All the stuff about if we lose, there’ll be a bloodbath, it’s stolen – look what they’re trying to do now in the local election districts where people count the votes, putting people in place in states where they’re going to count the votes.

“You can’t love your country, only when you win,” Mr Biden argued.

During a March campaign rally in Ohio, Mr Trump, 78, predicted a “bloodbath” in the auto industry if he doesn’t win the November election.

However, the line drew biting headlines casting Mr Trump’s rhetoric as a warning of a literal “bloodbath” if he loses the race.

“This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence,” Biden-Harris spokesperson James Singer said in a statement at the time.

President Biden spoke on CBS Sunday Morning. Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

“He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”

Mr Trump was directly asked in his June debate with Mr Biden if he would accept the results of the November election, to which he responded that he would “if it’s a fair and legal and good election.”

Former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images via AFP

“I tell you what, I doubt you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner,” Biden shot back at the debate. “The idea if you lose again, you accepting anything, you can’t stand the loss, something snapped in you when you lost the last time.”

Mr Biden withdrew from the race a little over a month after his disastrous June 20 debate against Mr Trump.

The president quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who locked up the Democratic nomination earlier this week and selected Minnesota Governer Tim Walz as her running mate.

Harris, 59, has not given any interviews or done any press conferences since taking over for Mr Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.

This story appeared in the New York Post and has been reproduced with permission.