President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he has no intention of peacefully giving up presidential power to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, thereby threatening the traditional peaceful transition of power that has been a hallmark of our system of government since the beginning.

While some outgoing presidents have refused to attend their successor’s inauguration, none have ever refused to leave office. But that’s exactly what Trump intends to do if he loses in November.

During yet another press conference, Trump once again would not commit to a peaceful transition, arguing that there won’t be a transition at all if he succeeds in getting all mail-in ballots invalidated.

“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. We’ll want to have — get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very — we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer frankly, there’ll be a continuation.”

And that’s the kicker. This is why Trump is so obsessed with demonizing vote by mail, which has been a secure method of voting in this country since the Civil War. Our troops vote by mail every election and several states have implemented it for years. And at a time when a pandemic has killed 200,000 Americans, more states are rightfully and responsibly implementing vote by mail to keep Americans safe.

There is little to no fraud in vote by mail. I live in the state of Missouri. My wife and I received our own absentee ballots without issue. We will fill them out, sign them, and turn them in to be counted. And yes, absentee voting is the same as vote by mail, regardless of what Trump says. He’s an idiot.

But again, Trump is obsessed with suppressing vote by mail. That’s why he has waged war on the Postal Service and it’s why he wants to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat that had been held by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg until her death last week. Trump seriously thinks the conservative majority on the high court will install him in the White House for a second term on the argument that mail-in votes are somehow invalid even if Biden wins.

“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court and I think it’s very important that we have nine justices, and I think the system’s going to go very quickly,” Trump said earlier Wednesday. “I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling, it’s a scam, this scam will be before the United States Supreme Court and I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation. Just in case it would be more political than it should be, I think it’s very important to have a ninth judge.”

This kind of un-American behavior is unprecedented. There have been contested elections before, but Trump is literally poised to refuse to leave office even if Biden wins by a landslide. He’ll run to the Supreme Court expecting the conservative majority to install him as a dictator. If that happens, our nation will descend into chaos and Americans will need to fight to get it back by whatever means necessary. And when we do, Trump and every one of his supporters should face serious consequences for this treason.

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