Baker blasts Trump: ‘Appalling and outrageous’
Gov. Charlie Baker lambasted what he called President Trump’s “appalling and outrageous” refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the presidential election in November.
An attack one city GOP member said is just a Democratic “talking point.”
In a five-minute-long commentary that moved from mail-in voting to Abraham Lincoln’s re-election in the midst of the Civil War, Baker excoriated Trump Thursday, saying “that peaceful transfer of power is what the people of this country rely on when they go out to vote.”
“How many times in an election have we heard the words, ‘the people have spoken?’” Baker said.
Trump on Wednesday told a reporter “we’re going to have to see what happens,” when asked if he would commit to a peaceful transition should he lose to Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November — a notion the president refused to entertain.
“There won’t be a transfer, frankly — there’ll be a continuation,” Trump said.
Lou Murray, national adviser to the 2016 Trump Campaign and President Ward 20 Boston GOP, said Trump is “standing up for the average voter who wants integrity in the presidential vote count.”
“Peaceful transfer of power is based on fair elections. Gov. Baker is repeating Democratic talking points. President Trump is only pushing back against the spate of nefarious rulings by Democratic governors and judges in battleground states that will allow ballot harvesting days after the election,” said Murray.
Baker — a Republican who has criticized Trump before — broke ranks with his party earlier this week when he said Trump and the GOP-led Senate should wait until after the election to install a replacement for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.