Biden Foresees Trump Challenging 2024 Election Defeat

Joe Biden

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden predicted his likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, would seek to overturn the result if he lost the 2024 presidential election.

Biden made the prediction in an interview published Monday with The New Yorker, part of a media blitz tied to Thursday's State of the Union address. He said the specter of an ugly aftermath hangs over the November contest thanks to Trump's embrace of violence.

“Losers who are losers are never graceful,” he said. “I just think that he'll do anything to try to win. If — and when — I win, I think he'll contest it. No matter what the result is.”

Aides have said Biden will use the address to frame the stakes of the election, painting Trump — much as he has since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection —- as a threat to democracy. That case is crucial to the president's struggling reelection bid, with polls showing him trailing Trump amid voter concerns about the 81-year-old incumbent's age.

In the interview, Biden expressed worry that the media had become “numbed” to the threat posed by the former president.

“How can we, as a democracy, elect anyone president who says violence is appropriate?” Biden said.

Trump was indicted last year for his role in efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat. Trump has denied advocating the violence seen at the US Capitol on Jan. 6. Still, Trump has referred to the attempted insurrection as “a beautiful day” and called for the release of supporters convicted for their role in the deadly breach.

Biden also defended his decision to seek reelection, arguing he had been chronically underestimated politically and represented the best chance to defeat Trump.

“I'm the only one who has ever beat him,” Biden said. “And I'll beat him again.”

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