Biden condemns Trump after he refuses to say he’ll accept 2024 results: ‘Something snapped in you’
The president noted that none of Trump’s spurious legal challenges to the 2020 election results in states he lost “had any merit,” and none produced any evidence of fraud
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![Louise Thomas](https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/support-us/louise-thomas.png)
Louise Thomas
Editor
In his first debate with Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump refused to explicitly say he would accept the results this November if he lost.
The debate in Atlanta was widely seen as a debacle with the president stumbling over answers and rambling. Trump meanwhile spouted lies and falsehoods throughout, mostly failing to answer questions and had to be pressed three times on whether he would accept the 2024 election results.
Asked the first time about accepting the election results, Trump said “if it’s fair, free, and I want that more than anybody.”
Asked another time, he ranted against Biden’s “insane” military policies and said the Biden administration will “drive us into World War 3.”
And asked a third time - to give only a “yes or no” answer - Trump instead said “if it’s a fair, legal and good election, absolutely,” before repeating his baseless claims that “fraud” derailed his election chances in 2020.
“Let’s see what your numbers are when this election is over,” Biden replied.
“You’re a whiner. When you lost the first time, you continued to appeal and appeal to courts all across the country,” the president said.
![Donald Trump refused to explicitly say that he would accept 2024 election results during the first presidential debate on Thursday](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/06/28/04/GettyImages-2158941511.jpg)
The president noted that none of Trump’s spurious legal challenges to the 2020 election results in states he lost “had any merit,” and none produced any evidence of fraud.
“You continue to promote this lie about somehow there was all this misrepresentation, all this stealing. There is no evidence at all,” Biden said.
“I doubt whether you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner. You can’t stand the loss. Something snapped in you when you lost last time.”
Since they last met in October 2020, Trump unsuccessfully tried to overturn the results of the election he lost; failed to stop a mob from storming the Capitol on Jan 6; got indicted in four separate cases encompassing 88 criminal charge; and became the first-ever American president to be criminally convicted.
Trump’s on-stage reunion with Biden in Georgia, is also where he is criminally accused of waging a conspiracy to overturn his rival’s victory in the state.
Two weeks from today, Trump will be sentenced in New York after a jury found him guilty of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to unlawfully influence the 2016 election. The former president is also facing criminal charges in Washington DC.
Trump’s bogus election claims span more than a decade, and have sowed doubt among his supporters to construct the lie of “stolen” and “rigged” elections, and fueled the attack at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The former president also ignored qustions from debate moderators on whether he would condemn the Jan 6, 2021 attack.
“Let me tell you about January 6,” said Trump, rattling off claims that “we had a great border” and “we were respected all over the world” on that day.
“And then he comes in and we’re not laughed at like a bunch of stupid people,” he said, referring to Biden.
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