Biden says he is “not confident” about a peaceful US election

President Joe Biden said on Friday he was not confident the US election in November would be peaceful, citing inflammatory comments from Republican candidate Donald Trump, who still rejects his 2020 defeat.

Biden’s warning came as lawmakers and analysts expressed concern about increasingly bellicose campaign language ahead of the vote.

Trump – who survived an assassination attempt in July and another apparent conspiracy in September – claimed widespread fraud after his loss to Biden, and pro-Trump rioters, inflamed by his false claims, ransacked the US Capitol.

“I am confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know if it will be peaceful,” Biden told reporters as he discussed the election.

“The things Trump said and the things he said last time when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous.”

Trump was impeached in 2021 for incitement of insurrection after hundreds of his supporters – exhorted by the defeated Republican to “fight like hell” – manhandled police officers as they broke windows and forced open doors at the Capitol.

“They cheat like hell”

He was charged with “private criminal efforts” to undermine the election that culminated in violence.

Trump — who is scheduled to return to the site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday — has long been under attack for his violent rhetoric.

Biden made his comments during the first appearance of his presidency in the White House briefing room, where he highlighted his administration’s successes in his Vice President Kamala Harris’ fight against Trump.

Harris and Trump, meanwhile, stormed the battleground states that will likely decide who wins the White House.

Trump campaigned in North Carolina on Friday, where he repeated his claims of voter fraud in 2020: “We should be elected, but remember, they’re cheating like hell,” he said.

He also visited neighboring Georgia, a swing state that Biden narrowly claimed four years ago but that Trump won in 2016 – and represents one of the biggest gains on the 2024 electoral map.

The Republican aggressively intervened in Georgia politics after his defeat in 2020, pushing for state officials to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory.

Trump, 78, was charged by prosecutors with racketeering. The case is currently on hold and is expected to be reopened after the election. He denies wrongdoing.

“Biggest Loser”

On Friday, Trump met with Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after receiving a briefing on the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.

Trump has repeatedly spread misinformation about the federal response to the disaster, falsely claiming that Harris misappropriated and diverted aid funds to benefit migrants.

Harris, who is tied with Trump in all seven swing states, demonstrated on Friday in Michigan – a union stronghold that embodied the decline of US manufacturing in the 1980s.

The Democratic candidate accused Trump of endangering auto industry jobs in Michigan.

“This is a man who only ever fought for himself. This is a man who has been a union fighter his entire career,” she said during a stop in Detroit.

She later called Trump “one of the biggest manufacturing job losers in American history” in the city of Flint.

Flint is a majority-black city where a 2010 lead water scandal highlighted government mismanagement and disproportionate harm to poor and non-white communities.

She reminded rally participants that the election is just a month away and early voting has already begun in several states.

“Folks, the choice is here. And we need to energize, organize and mobilize,” Harris said.

Her campaign previously announced that the country’s first black president, Barack Obama, would campaign for her in Pennsylvania and other swing states starting next week as she woos undecided voters in the US heartland.