Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Sunday echoed President Joe Biden’s remarks last week that the upcoming election would be “free and fair,” but maybe not “peaceful.”
“If it is close, if [former President] Donald Trump loses again, as I expect that he will, he will contest it,” Schiff told moderator Kristen Welker on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “He has more reason to contest it than he did before, not because of any flaw in the election, but because Donald Trump believes, and perhaps with reason, that if he doesn’t succeed at the ballot box, he may be going to jail. So he’s going to challenge the results.”
His comments follow remarks from Biden at the White House press briefing room on Friday, in which the president told reporters he was confident that the upcoming election “will be free and fair” but didn’t know “whether it will be peaceful.”
“What the president said was all too accurate — shockingly, breathtakingly, tragically accurate — and that is yes, I think the election will be free and fair, but will it be free of violence at the end of the day?” Schiff said Sunday.
Schiff pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol as an example of the violence that unfolded in the wake of Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“This is the legacy of Donald Trump, which is we now cannot go into an election with full confidence that the results will be peaceful,” the congressman, who is running for Senate this year, told Welker.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
He added that he expects Harris to win the election but that “it is still scary close” and that larger-than-expected margins could stem the threat of violence related to the election result.
“The reason why the margin is so important is because [Republicans] will challenge the results when they lose. Running up that margin as much as possible and turning people out has to be our priority,” Schiff said.