Apart from the global pandemic which has caught the attention many all over the world The just concluded American elections has been the topic of discussion and debate globally due to the fact that it was keenly contested any more importantly the reactions the incumbent president Donald Trump.
Trump had initially negated the whole electoral process and calling it a fraud a he felt he was being rigged out of office. He falsely declared himself victorious on the night of the elections and planned to go to the Supreme Court to stop vote counting – an action which increased the fears of some citizens of him undermining the democratic process.
The US elections has come and gone and a winner has emerged in the person of Joe Biden, The major question on everyone’s mind now is, what happens if the Trump refuses to surrender power and to leave the White House?
The above question has become so vital because Mr Trump had oftentimes, in the past drawn the attention of American people to the fact that he would only accept the results of an election if he considered it fair enough and if they were in his favour.
Many media channels are beginning to study the implication of this position of Trump on the American Society and the constitutional limits he would face in disputing his removal from the presidency.
Below are some reactions and thoughts on the above intent of Trump and possibility of what might happen if he refuses to concede power to the new president.
Meanwhile presidential candidate, Joe Biden has taken out time to make plans of counter measures on all the allegations without evidence that was made by Trump which included expanded mails in voting, the Corona virus pandemic, voter’s fraud rigging, etc. by gathering a team legal luminaries and attorneys to face him in court.
Mr Biden has insisted federal officials “will escort [Mr Trump] from the White House with great dispatch” if he loses the election.
The elections results indicated that Biden has won the just concluded US 2020 polls because three days after polls closed, Biden has a 290 to 214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, according to most major television networks.
The major concern about trump’s reactions is the fact that the lack of precedence in dealing with such a situation.
It has often been observed that peaceful transition of power is the basis of American nation and quick resolve has been taken on previous occasions in the history of the United States, when the presidency was in any way contested, cooler heads have often prevailed in the interest of the peaceful transfer of power.
Below are some reactions and thoughts on the above intent of Trump and possibility of what might happen if he refuses to concede power to the new president.
-Richard Nixon conceded to John F Kennedy in 1960 amid several accusations of vote rigging for the Democrat, for instance. Vice president Al Gore accepted the Supreme Court’s ruling that George Bush had won the 2000 presidential election even though there were significant questions about the integrity of the results in Florida.
-Paul Quirk, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, previously told The Independent it would put law enforcement in an awkward position.
He said that “At some point, the question would become: whose orders do law enforcement obey? Because it would ultimately become a matter of the use of force in one direction or another.”
-Joshua Sandman, a professor of political science at the University of New Haven, said he did not think Mr Trump would ever refuse to leave office after an election because it would destroy the president’s legacy. He also added that
‘The first line of defence would be the congress, and his party pressuring him out, telling him he must resign or leave,” Mr Sandman says. “If he wants to stay in the White House, he would stay in the White House. But, again, hypothetically you don’t need that. The White House is symbolic. It’s not a seat of power, necessarily.”..: “All of these are, it’s sort of a work of science fiction. It’s all hypothetical.”
-In an interview with The Independent in 2019, Ross Baker, an American political expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey, made a chilling prediction of what would hasaid that “if Mr Trump lost re-election by a very narrow margin,and
popular vote was won by less than 1 per cent nationwide, and a near tie in the electoral college, America could wake up to tweets from the president calling the previous day’s results a fraud, and saying there is no way he did not win by huge margins.
Meanwhile, Fox News would be welcoming pundit after pundit toeing that presidential line…” He further stated that “he imagined a scenario in which the House of Representatives got to decide the electoral college based upon each state’s delegation..It would certainly be a constitutional crisis to the first magnitude,” he concluded.
In all Of the above reactions, it is imperative to note that the US constitution makes no mention of how a president should be removed if they lose an election and refuse to relinquish power to the victorious candidate. It is difficult to predict what will be the outcome if it will warrant the FBI, or navy seals, or whatever law enforcement agency, storming into the West Wing to arrest a recently defeated Donald Trump. American citizens and observers globally are hoping it doesn’t come to that.
Gift Joseph Okpakorese
Staff Writer
