President Biden said he is "not confident at all" that there will be a peaceful transfer of power in January 2025 if former President Donald Trump is defeated.
"He means what he says. We don't take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about 'If we lose, there'll be a bloodbath, it'll have been a stolen [election],'" Mr. Biden told CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa in his first sit-down interview since announcing he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination. The interview will air on "CBS News Sunday Morning" on Sunday, Aug. 11.
"Look what they're trying to do now in the local election districts where people count the votes," said Mr. Biden. Repeating a familiar maxim about elections and democracy, the president said, "You can't love your country only when you win."
Trump's "bloodbath" comments at an Ohio campaign rally in March caused controversy, with Biden's campaign and other Democrats expressing alarm while Trump and his allies said he was referring to the economic fallout of U.S. trade policy.
At the time, Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said it showed Trump "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."
But the Trump campaign said that was "spin" on his words, and Trump took to social media saying the media "pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to [auto] imports."
When asked during their June debate whether he would accept the outcome of November's election, Trump said he would accept the results "if it's a fair and legal and good election," adding that there's "nothing [he'd] rather do." The former president then continued to falsely claim the "fraud and everything else was ridiculous" in the 2020 election.
"I tell you what, I doubt you'll accept it because you're such a whiner," Mr. Biden responded in their only 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."
Watch Mr. Biden's full interview on "CBS News Sunday Morning" on Sunday, Aug. 11. In the interview, Mr. Biden discusses his decision to leave the race, his outlook on the country and more.
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