Will be removed. Preelection control of the sea in the United States dont trump repeats the threats that he might not accept the result if he loses in less than 6 weeks time can he carry out his threat this is inside story. Holcombs inside story on the u. S. President ial election in november is happening against the backdrop of a Global Pandemic recession nationwide protests against Racism Police brutality and inequality but it could take the United States into uncharted territory if they dont trump refuses to concede the president s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses is kicking up yet another control the seat has repeatedly said he wont concede since he began trailing his rival joe biden in opinion polls democrats condemn his threats and Senior Republicans are distancing themselves but trumps doubling down and again questioning the fairness of postal voting a White House CorrespondentCommittee Health it begins our coverage. Many americans in the United States were alarmed this week when the u. S. President once again suggested that he may not accept the results of the 2020 president ial election particularly if the results are legally ambiguous in favor of his rival joe biden you have to see what happens you know that ive been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballot searches airstrip and people are writing. To making sure that theres a nice little word for all of the we want to get rid of the ballots and youll have a very transfer will have a very peaceful there will be a transfer frankly there will be a continuation of the ballots and they control you know it and you know who knows it better than anybody else the democrats know it better than anybody else now the fear of many voters is that the u. S. President could use uncertainty surrounding the election result to hold on to power now both republicans and democrats are amassing legal teams preparing for that possibility even if it is particularly targeted to battleground states on the democratic side Hillary Clinton has reflected the view of many in her party the 2016 president ial nominee for the Democratic Party suggesting that the 2020 nominee joe biden should concede under no circumstances as long as the results are unclear and there is the chance for a legal challenge so given this uncertainty it is clear that both sides are keeping their options open but according to an article in the Atlanta Magazine well guess republicans an edge perhaps is the expiration of a legal ruling that has really opened the door to allowing an army of conservative volunteers to essentially police through a variety of means the balloting as that is taking place in contested states now the accusations from the left as. This is outright Voter Suppression and even fraud the tactics have already been employed to some extent for example requiring id to cast a ballot outlawing ballots that arrive late as a result there is concern that we could see a long drawn out conclusion to this u. S. Election in 2020 much as we saw in 2000 when the results were not decided until mid december and even worse there is fear that the results could be so unclear that one side particularly the loser would refuse to concede. Lets bring in our guests who ole in the United States from austin texas matthew mark of the founder and chairman of the Republican Communications and Political Consultants the Potomac Strategy Group from philadelphia pennsylvania finkelstein professor of law and faculty director of the center for ethics and rule of law at the university of pennsylvania and from bethesda maryland is a president ial historian and distinguished professor of history at American University thank you for joining us all lets begin in austin with you matthew every 4 years quite proudly the American People go and peacefully overthrow the government of the time its been going on for 45 times now this time there seems to be some control the state this president is saying that hes not going to guarantee a peaceful transition of power what is the justification for that. Yeah this is a constant challenge for President Trump and that is from time to time he doesnt speak as literally as i think the press and perhaps the public takes him out to be to be doing in this case it would have been far better had he said yes there will be a peaceful transfer of power there may be legal challenges on one side or the other thats entirely appropriate but when people hear the phrase peaceful transfer of power they think of 2 you know the military being used to keep a dictator in power thats obviously not going to happen in the United States we may have legal challenges that may last weeks or even months potentially its going to be a destructive period for the country but i have 0 doubt that the courts and the military will be used the way they always have and that in in the end we will have the duly elected president sworn in on on january 20th but why the Foreign Language matthew why not even just ones where his advisors could produce as you might want to temper down the rhetoric twice 3 times and keep saying it and i wouldnt say transfused and i dont think hes really used the filing which he was asked about the phrase peaceful transfer of power hes never said there wont be one he was asked about it so he wants to to remain he wants to protect his ability to sue in states if he believes the laws but election laws in violated thats entirely appropriate im not even sure i see a much of a distinction between the way the Biden Campaign is protecting their options and the way the Trump Campaign is protecting theres nothing cosigned in philadelphia what do you fold so i mean a guest in austin texas is saying that actually everything is normal in this is his paw impulse all of the rough and tumble of politics. I wish i had as much faith in the willingness of donald trump to abide by the rule of law as our guest does he has signaled repeatedly that he will only follow prescribed pathways legal pathways if he wins he has made remarks that suggest that in fact he will use every means at his disposal to ensure that he remains in power and this is gravely concerning this kind of messaging. Sends a signal to his base hes been sending signals repeatedly that he believes the democrats are trying to steal the election in fact the reverse seems to be quite true he often accusers the other side of doing exactly what he himself is in the process of doing but by using this kind of rhetoric what hes doing is creating a platform for messaging his supporters are on the evening of november 3rd that he thinks the election is being stolen and that may create an atmosphere of chaos it may produce some violence in the streets and it may be that in the ensuing chaos and this is really the point of the article in the atlantic that was pointed out. He may have an easier time influencing for example the assignment of electors with the states because unlike in 2016 years now president and therefore he controls a great deal of what the federal government can do in intersecting with state Election Officials to try to tilt the election in his way there may eventually be Court Battles i agree with matthew that the most likely scenario is that the courts will function the way they always have and i do believe the military will. But as we know from 2000 that can be an extremely disruptive process for the country creating a lot of uncertainty and a lack of faith in the outcome of the election let me get out with as and maryland and Allan Lichtman is there any precedent in u. S. History that we can we can look at and we can suggest is the model of the moving forward or is this the 1st time this is this kind of language has been used oh no we have certainly precedence here but i want to make one quick point the danger is not here that once the Electoral College ballots are counted that donald trump will barricade himself in the white house and call on the proud boys to keep him in office no the real issue is and the president has bade this absolutely plain that he will do Everything Possible to steal the election before that happens by suppressing the vote of the rising Democratic Base of minorities and young people hes absolutely brazen about that and weve had that happen before 2000 the election came down to florida. Bush won florida by 537 votes and won the presidency but the wrong person was selected in fact as i proved in my 2001 report to the distinguished United States commission on civil rights as a result of the discarding of votes cast by africanamericans al gore should have won florida going away well to maybe not distinguished political scientist did a careful study following up on mine and found that gore should have won that election by more than 30000 votes you can also go all the way back to 876 in the transition from reconstruction to White Supremacy in the south when they were disputed ballots from South Carolina louisiana and florida always seems to come down to florida and the truth is the constitution says nothing about how to deal with that and congress set up a commission which was supposed to be evenly balanced between democrat republicans and independents turned out to be 8. 00 to 7. 00 republican which made every decision 8. 00 to 7. 00 in favor of the republican rutherford b. Hayes and there was talk about violence about not accepting that result about a new civil war it didnt happen we did have a peaceful transfer of power and i think were talking about Voter Suppression hecla serious allegation the reason that president dont trump is so confident that he might be in the white house come november is because hes already rigging the election that seems to be an accusation coming out what do you think. I think its pretty hard to argue at this point that either side is quote unquote rigging the election i do think there are legitimate concerns about states that are mailing out ballots that people havent requested to receive by mail i dont believe there are any real legitimate criticisms about absentee voting or someone requests a mail about they receive it and then they were turn it but there are several handful of states are doing unrequested universal mail ballots and the problem with that is that the data that counties and states have is not going to be perfect theyre going to be mailing ballots people who are not currently living at the place where theyre sending the ballots and that is going to create confusion and then theres also concern questions about ballot harvesting about people going out and literally picking up ballots and bringing them in there are questions about whether ballots have to be postmarked and by when they have to be postmarked when they have to be received i think i heard yesterday in pennsylvania theyre going to accept mail ballots for 6 days after the election and the ballots do not have nothing and youre saying the u. S. Election system knew the u. S. Election system isnt fit for purpose well i think there are legitimate questions about and thats why there are Something Like 3 or 4 dozen major lawsuits in different states because a handful of states i think have gone beyond what is a reasonable system that said i do not believe right now that most americans should look at this and have doubt about the integrity of the result well let me think yes or no its time to head to respond here and ill come to you in just a 2nd i will come to in just a 2nd i want to bring claire in. What do you think of what matthew is saying hes saying that actually the problem isnt rigging votes the problem isnt Voter Suppression its actually just the system. I think what matthew is saying is irresponsible we have no evidence that there is widespread fraud or any risk of fraud or insecurity in the use of mail and balloting Washington State has used mail in ballot extensively for many many years we have just about 0 reports of problems with mail in balloting and to suggest in the middle of a pandemic when people are afraid to go to the polls that there is a National Security problem with the use of mail in ballot is an attempt by the republicans part of their talking points to suppress the vote because they know that mail in ballots will most likely be used in heavily democratic areas as well as the fact that Voter Suppression will work to the benefit of republicans because democrats tend to win the popular vote Donald Trumps best hope for winning the election legitimately is through the Electoral College is very unlikely to win the popular vote and so putting it about that mail in balloting in the middle of a pandemic is that runs a risk of fraud and is dangerous i think is an attempt at manipulation and it should not be allowed there should be great confidence in the use of mail in balloting except for the fact that donald trump has been presumably working with louis de joy the postmaster general to suppress votes by interfering with the delivery of postal mail and that is a transparent attempt to interfere with the operation of mail and balloting and absentee balloting something that is extremely problematic and fortunately the house of representatives has been looking into the functioning of the post office and i hope will be able to address this prior to the election. Lets have your response to what matthew said yeah what matthew says is typical of what we heard from the president these unsubstantiated generalizations let me give you the facts. About 5 states have been using this universal mail in Ballot System that matthew cries for many many years that includes the blood red state republican state of utah there has been a sensually 0 problems with voter fraud or with any kind of mismanagement of the system the system has worked very well and in fact its a very good system because it promotes increase voter turnout which is something that the republicans have made clear they dont want the Republican Base you know is the most shrinking part of the electorate its all white guys like me in addition there have been a number of studies by republican oriented groups including the National RepublicanLawyers Association the highly conservative Heritage Foundation and the president s own commission on Election Integrity and they have found virtually 0 fraud in mail in ballots whether its regular absentee or universal mail and like we have in utah oregon and washington so when you get past the rhetoric and look at the facts you see as the professor correctly points out this is a transparent attempt to suppress the vote it has 0 to do with voter fraud with even seen you know william bork and donald trump you know going after these 9 ballots that were in advertently discarded had nothing to do with fraud as an example of d you know this massive democratic fraud effort and in fact it was done in loser in county iraq public and controlled county and pennsylvania it had nothing to do with democrats or fraud it is just so irresponsible what the republicans are doing. You know and it plays right into the hands of a lot of men who likes nothing more than casting doubt in our democracy causing division and chaos in america. If you want to respond so that youve had 2 people that very very very critical of your position your president s position yeah i mean that was 4 minutes of demagoguery that ill never get back they just entirely ignored the points i was making ok im not saying that absentee balloting which is entirely appropriate theres no problem absentee balloting in the states that have universal mail balloting theyve been doing that for years and years and years and they have very been theres no and i wouldnt have any 1st here when they did it not on their 1st alan you probably think so alan you think 40 states that dont have male balloting in a in a matter of weeks can clean up their data enough and deliver and deliver mail ballots to people who didnt request them in a way that would maintain the integrity of the election you have confidence in that absolutely thats not 40 states that are doing that matt come on get your if i wrecked rake if youre going to make claims you are correct it is a youre correct i think want to censor and its around 10 states are you doing universal mail about so all of a good operating thank you im all im good its nice to get the facts straight matt all im doing is separating universal mail ballots from absentee those are Different Things i do not want to and theyre the ones you know a lot on. But i mean everyone let me bring you in i mean at what point do you have to say that the election system the election process is at breaking point ahead because if this if the what if the president is saying that its not that the purpose is going to work there will be problems come election day and you know on the other hand youre hearing well actually now the system does work its Voter Suppression is a problem a while point is the actual u. S. Election process the problem. There are deep problems with our Voting System in this country but it does not have to do with mail and ballots particularly and by the way on that topic id like to say that if the republicans are so concerned about fraud in the use of mail in ballots then why did the president suggest that to his base that in fact people should vote twice once by mail and the other in person as far as our system of voting when is it truly broken the biggest problem that weve had in recent years with the fairness and equality and the legitimacy of our Voting System is number one the fact that a very small segment of the population votes we need to make it easier for people to register to vote and then we need to make it easier for them to vote thats number one number 2 gerrymandering weve seen years and years of gerrymandering and the ability to control the way that the votes come out in a way that is not reflective of the underlying will of the people and those battles around gerrymandering have also in effect been an effort at Voter Suppression and to control the outcome the republicans do not want a large segment of the population to vote and they do not want their votes to be equally counted and our politics will look very very different once there are laws in place and practices in place both at the national and state level to address the disenfranchisement of large segments of the population clarrie want to push i want to push you on that because thats an interesting point you to do talking about the legality of all of this nothing that the u. S. President donald trump the said or done is actually broken any law. Well actually i think thats not true i think whats going on in the post office. At that point constitutes a deep legal problem because if indeed what is happening is that mail is being slowed the operations of the post office are being gummed up and mail is being delayed in some cases we have reports of mail actually being dumped and that all of this is being done to support the reelection chances of donald trump there is a there are deep legal problems with that deep ethical problems with that and so i think that in fact there are many respects in which the president s attempt to ensure his reelection and what hes doing to suppress all running as i want to do want to come to me are now lets just respond to those allegations that illegality is happening now it might not come out before the election but certainly an investigation will take place after the election if it does come out your man is certainly impeached isnt it. Know theres not illegality at the post office in fact almost every allegation thats been made has been disproven or has been shown to have started in the Obama Administration including including making the location of the number of mailboxes that are used more efficient having a more efficient system the post Office System losing tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars year after year after year youre probably going to have you know lets say 15280000000 votes cast if half of those votes are cast by mail that would be 75000000 pieces of mail around the country youre going to have the post office handles Something Like 300000000 pieces of mail in an average month ok so its a rounding error its not a significant part of their work that to me is just not not a serious argument to be made the concern that i do have that i think is very possible is that trump will weigh in on Election Night and lose a week or 2 weeks later when all the mail ballots are counted and that may be entirely legitimate it may also be illegitimate either way i think half of the country is going to see the ultimate result of the president president ial election is illegitimate and i think we are in for a very destructive 2 or 3 month period and im deeply concerned about that nothing i just want to get a response to you from when allen was here thoughts look the 2000 election was not resolved i think it was around december 12th more than 5 weeks after the election that i hear one peep of a complaint from any republican of course not there is no requirement that the election be decided on november 3rd particularly in the midst of a pandemic where youre having so many mail in ballots and not suggest well maybe that would be illegitimate to have a result after counting all the mallon ballots of course thats not illegitimate a mail in ballot is equal to any other ballot and the election isnt decided until all ballots are counted including all of the mail. In ballots so i do not see an issue there and yet you know that its not inflammatory i have to say you know hes pretty calm what like the president but you know the last thing we need is even common rational people like matt saying well the result may be illegitimate if it you know takes a while that count the ballots of course that is not the case every ballot should be counted and we dont have a result in till all the ballots are in and thats fine as i said republicans were perfectly happy to have the Supreme Court give them the election in 2000 after almost 6 weeks lichtman thank you very much and i want to thank all of the guess actually matthew react Claire Finkelstein and june as well and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our web site out is there are those come in for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a. J. Inside story from am wrong con and the whole team hit by. I. The u. S. Is always of in fact the people all right the world people Pay Attention to what you can hear and i do see it is very good at bringing the news to the world from here what once was faked what will be the one chechen choreographer to dish in the future after ever in 22. 00 passion and the ratio between time and Energy Nation and with them the attention of the looting it is the new vision of the future not from the need to sign east chechnyas down its. Easier. We understand the difference is im similarities have cultures across the land. So no matter what you seek out is more right bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. Aljazeera. 1200 hours g. M. T. Here on aljazeera im Kamal Santamaria and these are the top stories a spokesman for the azerbaijan presidency has told aljazeera his countrys goal is to retake all as Syria Territory controlled by Armenian Forces he added armenia Must Withdraw from territory its occupied for 30 years for the conflict to end the fighting has flared over the disputed region of not going to cut about and the surrounding areas russia the e. U. France turkey