[King:] More now in the days most remarkable and alarming big news story, President Trump refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November election to the former Vice President Joe Biden.
[Unidentified Male:] Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transfer of power after the election?
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] Well, we're going to have see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very transfer you'll have a very peaceful, there won't be a transfer, frankly, there'll be a continuation.
[King:] Joining me now to discuss this is Astead Herndon, The New York Times national political reporter, Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, and our CNN presidential historian, Doug Brinkley. Julie Pace, I want to start with you moments ago, the Speaker of the House, the nation's top Democrat elected right now had to say this.
[Rep. Nancy Pelosi:] Remind him, you are not in North Korea. You are not in Turkey. You are not in Russia, Mr. President. And by the way, you are not in Saudi Arabia. You are in the United States of America, it is a democracy. So why don't you just try for a moment to honor your oath of office to the Constitution of the United States.
[King:] Of all of the, oh, well, this could never happen moments that we have had in the Trump presidency, 40 days to Election Day, kind of the President of the United States stand in the White House briefing room and say we'll see what happens. When asked if he would honor the results and peacefully leave office if he loses is stunning.
[Julie Pace, Washington Bureau Chief, Associated Press:] It is stunning. And I think we have to take this President seriously when he leaves open that possibility when he can't make that commitment. Because this is different than when he raised similar issues during the 2016 campaign because he is the sitting President and he has the levers of power that come with that office at his disposal. I do think that it was important today that we saw a pushback from Republicans who said something akin to what Pelosi said that a peaceful transfer of power is what makes the United States unique, that we can have incredibly tense fierce elections over the direction of this country. But at the end of that election, the American public can be confident that there will be a peaceful transfer of power. So, again, I think we have to take the President seriously if he's not willing to make that commitment right now.
[King:] And it is a remarkable moment, Astead, 40 days, a lot of people are already voting but 40 days before we start to count those votes. And you see the headlines your newspaper, "The New York Times", Trump won't commit to peaceful post-election transfer of power. Slate has a story on this, POLITICO, RedState, which is a conservative pro-Trump tries to make a joke out of this. Joe Biden was asked about this last night, Astead, here's what he said.
[Joe Biden , Presidential Nominee:] What country are we in? I'm being facetious. I said, what country are we in? Look, he says the most irrational things. I don't know what to say about it. But it doesn't surprise me.
[King:] He says he doesn't know what to say about it. But I assume there's a big debate next week. And the first presidential debate often is the most important presidential debate. We have a Supreme Court pick. We have a coronavirus pandemic. And now we have a President undermining the very democracy he leaves.
[Astead Herndon, Cnn Political Analyst:] Exactly. I don't and I think we can expect Joe Biden and the campaign to make this a kind of central facet, both the factual point, though, the point of this is a democracy understands that President Trump has not respected the norms of this country. And is not respected the kind of bipartisan agreement, the cross country agreement that we share as a functioning democracy. And that's something he is trying to override. But I also think that you'll see the Biden campaign use this as part of an overarching message of this is just an administration of drama, of chaos, of one that does not kind of respect the institutions of the country. And that is a cross ideological message. That's one that they're trying to target at folks who may have been some of the reluctant Trump voters in 2016, saying, hey, this guy cannot grow into the office and he will not change in the four years going forward. But I think even with those political concerns, we have to hone this in the kind of core, core fear that this drives at, not only the kind of Democratic questioning that he did there, but what he said after about if we have ballots, there would be a continuation of power. He is framing this as if the only legitimate election result is one in which he wins. That is dangerous. And that is kind of a unprecedented level of fear that is striking deep at the Democratic core.
[King:] And to that point, Douglas Brinkley, often we just let Trump outrageous roll off us when he says things that aren't true, when he mocks people personally, when he uses caustic language, but this is a President of the United States 40 days to Election Day, lying about mail-in balloting, saying it's critical that you have a Supreme Court justice put in place in case there are post-election challenges, and openly saying he may ignore the results of a Democratic election. Is there any historical president?
[Douglas Brinkley, Cnn Presidential Historian:] There's nothing like this. This is a power grab of just grotesque proportions. Basically, he's blackmailing people and saying, I won't leave. If the result doesn't come my way, I'm going to stay in the but, you know, it's like, Herman Melville story. I prefer not to leave. I will stay in the White House. He's threatening us and our democracy is at risk here. The moderators of these three debates cannot let Donald Trump off the hook. He has going to have to apologize or renege on this idea that he will not accept the results of this election. You know, the greatest moment of Richard Nixon's career was in 1960, when he barely lost to John F. Kennedy. And Nixon knew for the good of the country, he had to accept that tight result and not do a recount to put our country through hell. And we saw Al Gore who fought hard and brought things to the Supreme Court in 2000, neck to neck with George W. Bush, had won the popular vote, and Gore conceded defeat because he knew it was best for the country. Donald Trump is spitting in the face of democracy saying, I don't give a damn what's good for our country. I'm about me and my power. And it's just out of all the outrages, this one we better hone in on very, very tightly right now. Otherwise, we're no longer the United States of America. We're a whole different country.
[King:] I know he works in other network. But Chris Wallace, the first moderator is A, a fine journalist and B, asked tough questions, and C, has gone down this road with President Trump before in debates and in interviews, so you can be certain it will come up. Julie Pace to the idea that you did have Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, Senator Mitt Romney, Congresswoman Liz Cheney who's in the House Republican leadership, and a long list of other Republicans talking about this will not happen, we will have a peaceful transfer of power. It is interesting, because often Republicans just hide and try to ignore things when the President says these things. But those statements, at least none of the ones that have come across me, very few of them say Mr. President, you're wrong. Mr. President, you're reckless. Mr. President, stop. They just say there will be a peaceful transfer of power, we will honor the Constitution.
[Pace:] Right. There's still some level of restraint in some of these comments from Republicans when it comes to actually pushing back on the President himself by name to say you are wrong, Mr. President. I do think that what we're seeing, though, is Republicans trying to lay out for him that there is a red line that if we got into a scenario in which he is refusing to concede that they would not go along with that, and Republicans do have a role, Congress does have to certify the results of the election. And so we have heard from Republicans, we've also heard from military officials, you know, that they are not going to get involved. I think that was an active effort by the military to say you can't rely on us to help you if you get into this situation. I think the real question, if Donald Trump does lose, and he will not concede, as again, does he just not concede but ultimately goes away and then it is grumpy and complaining about the results or does he actually try to use the levers of government, the powers that he has to try to stay in office?
[King:] In this case, I think we need to take him at his word and stay on top of this. And to your point about Republicans and Doug's point about debates, guess what a lot of those Republicans are on the ballot. And they're going to get asked these questions now, which is one of the reasons they don't like it. Julie Pace, Douglas Brinkley, Astead Herndon grateful for the reporting and important insights. Again, we will stay on top of the story. When we come back, though, back to the coronavirus and the persisting racial disparities in the impact of COVID-19.