Mike Pence won’t say if Trump will accept election defeat peacefully

Worries that Donald Trump will stir up violence rather than leave office have become a theme of the election campaign

At last night’s debate with Kamala Harris, vice president Mike Pence was asked what he would do if Donald Trump refused to accept a peaceful post-election transfer of power – and like the president, he declined to commit to a nonviolent aftermath.

It comes after several months in which Mr Trump has himself refused to commit to accepting the result of the election or to guarantee peace after the result becomes clear, instead implying that the only way he will lose is if the election is stolen.

Asked by moderator Susan Page what his “role and responsibility” would be if Mr Trump lost but declined to leave office, Mr Pence insisted he and the president were going to win, then rattled off a long list of the Trump administration’s supposed achievements – before turning the question back on the Democrats and avoiding the question of non-violence altogether.

“But when you talk about accepting the outcome of the election, I must tell you – senator, your party has spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the results of the last election. It’s amazing.

“When Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, the FBI actually spied on president Trump and my campaign. I mean, there were documents released this week that the CIA actually made a referral to the FBI, documenting that those allegations were coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign. And of course, we’ve all seen the avalanche, what you put the country through for the better part of three years, until it was found that there was no obstruction, no collusion, case closed.

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“And then, senator Harris, you and your colleagues in the Congress tried to impeach the president of the United States over a phone call. And now Hillary Clinton has actually said to Joe Biden that, in her words, under no circumstances should he concede the election.”

Mr Pence’s claim that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign is false, though it has become a key Republican point over the last year, Mr Trump repeatedly referring to it as “Obamagate” and “the biggest political scandal in American history”.

The instruction from Ms Clinton that Mr Pence alluded to, meanwhile, comes from an interview with her former campaign manager Jennifer Palmieri in August. It has been cited numerous times by Republicans defending Mr Trump as evidence the Democrats are trying to “steal” the election.

However, it has been taken somewhat out of context. Ms Clinton in fact warned that Mr Biden should not concede on election night should it seem Mr Trump is ahead, as the president may well claim victory in those circumstances in order to present mail-in results as fraudulent should they move states into Mr Biden’s column.

Among the Republicans who have pointed to this quote is Florida congressman and vociferous Trump ally Matt Gaetz, who recently voted against a non-binding resolution committing the House of Representatives to a peaceful aftermath in November.

“Professional loser Hillary Clinton has told Joe Biden that he should not concede, and I'm quoting, under any circumstances,” said Mr Gaetz during the floor debate on the motion. “The transition integrity project has said that the aftermath of the November election will be, and I'm quoting, a street fight, not a legal battle.

“The same report suggests that Biden could even try to convince states to actually secede from the union. Are these actions of a party willing to accept defeat?”

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Mr Gaetz, Mr Pence and other Republicans routinely accuse the Democrats of not accepting the result of the 2016 election. However, in her concession speech the day after the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton specifically cited the peaceful transfer as a cornerstone of American democracy, and while she has consistently blamed various outside factors for helping tip the election against her, she has never sought to have the result overturned.

Meanwhile, former Trump aides who have turned against the president have reported that staffers specifically discussed what to do should the president refuse to leave office. Joe Biden himself has said that if the president refused to leave the White House, the military would escort him out with “great dispatch”.

At the debate, Mr Pence joined in Mr Trump’s warning that the election may be subject to massive voter fraud via absentee ballots – though he declined to follow the president in claiming it will be “the most inaccurate and fraudulent in history” thanks to the surge in voting by mail. Instead, his tone was reassuring.

“So let me just say, I think we’re going to win this election,” said the vice president. “President Trump and I are fighting every day in courthouses to prevent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from changing the rules and creating this universal mail in voting that’ll create a massive opportunity for voter fraud.

“And we have a free and fair election. We know we’re going to have confidence in it. And I believe in all my heart that president Donald Trump is going to be re-elected for four more years.”