House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday that he doesn’t think President Trump plans to peacefully leave the White House and instead wants to attempt to use emergency powers to extend his term.
Clyburn told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he does not think Trump ever planned to “peacefully transfer power.”
“I don’t think he plans to leave the White House,” he said. “He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office.”
“And that is why the American people had better wake up,” he added.
Clyburn warned that history shows democracy falls apart without a “fair, unfettered election.” The South Carolina Democrat alleged that the president proposed last week to delay the election because he’s “trying to put a cloud over this election.”
“This is not a perfect democracy, but it’s better than any other that exists,” he told CNN. “And I really feel that the fundamentals are being frayed. And if we are not careful, this country, it will be lost for our next generation, our children and our grandchildren.”
Clyburn stood by his previous comments that he feels “very strongly” that Trump is former Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and that Russian President Vladimir Putin is Adolf Hitler.
The president in a tweet last week suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election while raising concerns about the risks of fraud involved with mail-in voting.
“I don’t think he plans to leave the White House. He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office,” Democratic Rep. James Clyburn says about Pres. Trump. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/QUo8jux5kx
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 2, 2020
Interest in mail-in voting has increased due to the coronavirus pandemic. There is no evidence indicating voter fraud increases with absentee or mail-in ballots.