if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferral of power after the election? we re going to have to see what happens, you know that. i ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster. you tweeted a response to that. you wrote, the peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our constitution, and fundamental to the survival of our republic. america s swear an oath, that suggests to me that you were worried. i was. there s a basic fundamental thing. every president really is responsible for safeguarding the peaceful transfer of power. we re going to have to see what happens. so for president trump not to be willing to make that commitment was stunning. that was september 2020, when donald trump also stunned republican al schmidt. we either need to get them on board or move the polling place.
in 2012 he tweeted, quote, more reports of voting machines switching romney votes to obama. pay close attention to the machines. don t let your vote be stolen. not true. in 2016, quote, ted cruz didn t win iowa, he stole it. not true. and this after he won the electoral college, hence the presidency in 2016. quote, i won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. also not true. president trump started a commission to look for that in 2017. they could find nothing. they disbanded before they could even file a report. in 2020, mail-in ballots, which were going to be more prevalent because of the pandemic, became a perfect new foil for trump s old claim. voting by mail is wrought with fraud and abuse.
margin of error of less than 1%. and in oklahoma, state officials there opened an investigation to counter allegations of hacked voting machines. similar cries of fraud from governors and state legislators have gone on and continue to go on in nearly 40 states. the fact is, election fraud does occur. charges of widespread fraud have all been proven false. but the claims have succeeded in one critical way. they have shattered trust in the election system. a poll published in november found that only 33% of republicans said that they would trust the results of the 2024 election if their candidate didn t win. that compares to 82% of democrats. there will be no faith whatsoever in election results. there s 70 million people who
in other words where the candidate that won the state, the state sends that slate of electors, but they want to preserve the ability to block states that sent a false slate of electors. someone that didn t win but the legislature wants to make president. 2022 is a crucial year for getting this done, because democrats recognize that they re likely to lose control of one if not both chambers of congress, and they have to get the report done this year. they have to get the legislative recommendations enacted this year if they have any realistic chance of making it happen before the next presidential election. all right. sahil on the hill and pete williams with the preview of the attorney general s speech. thanks to both of you. we re to pete s point a few moments ago, getting a look at some recent polling that sheds new light on just how deeply americans are divided in their views on january 6th ahead of the anniversary tomorrow.
disagrees with him as though they were them. or on their side. you said you re on their side is what he said. yeah, and that s not a side i would want to be on if you re looking to line up history, people you don t want to be on their side. i d put those people on that side. jen is constantly in a position she s going to walk back joe biden s comments or say here s what he really meant. it happens all the time and it s been happening since he took office. so what i make of it is this is a white house that thought they hit a home run and quickly realized that this was a massive swing and a miss by joe biden and it seriously damaged him. in washington. also out in greater america. i think this thing went over like a lead balloon politically and they now know it. van, that language definitely didn t win over kyrsten sinema and joe manchin, the democrats that have been reluctant to change the filibuster rules, even though they support the election reform bills. it didn t work to ch