Americas

Trump says will accept peaceful transfer after balking

US president begrudgingly concedes to hallmark of US electoral system but maintains he wants 'an honest election'

Michael Gabriel Hernandez  | 16.10.2020 - Update : 16.10.2020
Trump says will accept peaceful transfer after balking President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump during the 58th U.S. Presidential Inauguration after he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America in Washington, USA on January 20, 2017. ( Samuel Corum - Anadolu Agency )

WASHINGTON 

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he will accept a peaceful transfer of power if his Democratic rival wins the presidency on Nov. 3 but insisted he wants to see "an honest election." 

"They try to take down a duly-elected, sitting president, and then talk about 'will you accept a peaceful transition?' — and the answer is yes, I will, but I want it to be an honest election, and so does everybody else," the president said during an NBC News-hosted town hall in Miami, Florida.

He previously repeatedly balked at committing to a peaceful transfer, a hallmark of the US electoral system, over so far unsubstantiated claims of fraud tied to mail-in voting, which is being used at a likely historic rate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump has repeatedly sought to frame investigations into his campaign, including potential collusion with Russia, as a deep state plot against him staged by Democrats and their sympathizers.

"It's sort of ironic that you and them talk about the peaceful transfer when I spent three and a half years fighting off these maniacs," he told host Savannah Guthrie. "Peaceful transfer? I absolutely want that. But ideally, I don’t want to transfer, because I want to win.

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