President Joe Biden expressed concerns that the upcoming US election in November might not be peaceful, pointing to incendiary remarks from Republican candidate Donald Trump, who continues to reject the 2020 election results.
Biden's warning comes amid growing alarm among lawmakers and analysts over increasingly aggressive campaign rhetoric.
Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in July and another suspected plot in September, has consistently alleged widespread fraud following his 2020 loss to Biden. Pro-Trump rioters, incited by his false claims, stormed the Capitol in January 2021.
While Biden said he is confident the election will be "free and fair," he expressed uncertainty about whether it would be peaceful. He pointed to Trump's past dangerous rhetoric when the former president refused to accept the election outcome.
Trump was impeached in 2021 for inciting the insurrection, after urging his supporters to "fight like hell," leading to an attack on the Capitol where rioters clashed with police and broke into the building. He has also been indicted for allegedly attempting to subvert the election, which led to the violent events.
As Trump prepares to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of an earlier assassination attempt, Biden continues to criticize Trump's inflammatory rhetoric. Meanwhile, Trump is campaigning in Georgia, a swing state narrowly won by Biden in 2020 but claimed by Trump in 2016, and one of the key battlegrounds in the 2024 election.
