Trump says he'd put down 'insurrection' and crush riots on election night: 'When looting starts, shooting starts'

 President Donald Trump has been accused time and again of being someone who would not be sporting enough to accept the results of the 2020 presidential poll. With the November 3 election promising to be a not-so-smooth affair in times of the pandemic, the incumbent president’s opponents are even more apprehensive. Democratic candidate Joe Biden has even said in the past that the mercurial Trump will be removed from the White House by the military if he doesn't concede defeat after losing the poll. 

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And now, the 74-year-old Trump has come up with a sinister plan that would add fuel to the fear. Speaking to Fox News’s Jeanine Pinto on Thursday, September 10, the president said he would stifle riots on election night “very quickly” if the Democrats held protests against his potential victory. 

President Donald Trump returns to the White House after posing for photographs in front of St. John's Episcopal Church June 1, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

“We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that. We have the right to do that, we have the power to do that if we want,” Trump said when asked how he would stop potential riots on election night should he emerge victoriously.

The president’s reply came when Pinto asked him: “Let's say there are threats. They say that they are going to threaten riots if they lose on election night, assuming we get a winner on election night. What are you going to do?” The interview at the White House took place at a time when the president has been hit by bombshell claims made by a new book titled 'Rage' penned by veteran journalist Bob Woodward. 

'It's called insurrection'

“Look, it's called insurrection. We just send in, and we do it very easy. I mean, it's very easy. I'd rather not do that because there's no reason for it, but if we had to, we'd do that and put it down within minutes. Within minutes,” Trump said.

This is not the first time that the GOP leader has spoken about rioters with disdain. As the country’s cities witnessed violence and protests in the wake of the agonizing death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, the president was seen coming out with hard combative ideas like deploying the military to quell them, putting his own administration in a spot. In June, for instance, Trump faced bipartisan criticism after cops and National Guard personnel used rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades to disperse peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square outside the White House as the president walked to St John’s Episcopal Church where he posed with a Bible. 

Trump has also sent federal agents to various cities after alleging that Democratic authorities of those cities were allowing the rioters a free run. He also infamously repeated an old saying: “When looting starts, shooting starts” to show his strong face to the protesters. His uttering the term “insurrection” during the latest interview also recalled his administration’s threat to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces to dominate the protests. 
 
Trump has expressed his concerns over the outcome of the results given the fact mail-in voting is being encouraged in order to restrict the spread of the coronavirus. The president feels mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraudulence and went on to ask his supporters recently to vote twice, drawing ire. He also tweeted saying the election results must come out on the very night and not days, months or years later. 

Must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months, or even years later!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020

According to some experts, Trump could try to announce victory on election night based on the physical votes even as millions of mail-in ballots undergo counting, Daily Mail reported. Mail-ballot requests and early voting in the swing states is already showing that the Democrats are at an advantage. 

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is leading Trump in several battleground states as well as nationally.