Political analyst Ian Williams believes US President Donald Trump is “a megalomaniac” who has no intention of committing to a peaceful transition if he loses the November election.
Williams made the remarks on Saturday during Press TV’s The Debate program which was also joined by former US Army psychological warfare officer Scott Bennett.
The latest edition of The Debate focused on various scenarios for the outcome of upcoming US presidential election, a race between Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
When asked about the reliability of the opinion polls and their results prior to the election, Williams said, they are “inaccurate.” He added, “The structure of the elections between the various states, the voting restrictions, the court decisions at every level from the supreme court down, all of them together make it very unlikely that this is any expression of popular will.”
Bennett also said that “they are not reliable at all, they’re often rigged.”
“But I think it’s very important for the audience to be taken on a sort of a scholarly analytical historical analysis of where America is right now and how we’ve gotten there, and the preeminent deciding factor of the elections, what is right forefront in the consciousness of Americans is what they’re seeing and hearing every day which is the disruptions and the violence and the chaos, and the madness and the insanity of much of the riots and looting and protestations that are occurring in the United States, that’s very disturbing to the majority of people, and that is driving their primary election decision, and they are naturally inclined to those voices and messages of stability, tranquility, safety, in order to allow people to live their lives and be prosperous, so that’s why people, Democrats, Republicans and independents are leaning towards President Donald Trump not towards Biden, they sense a weakness, and confusion, and mental disintegration in Biden.”
Bennett’s remarks come as polls show Trump is trailing Biden in the polls. According to a new survey by The NBC News/Wall Street Journal, Biden is leading the incumbent 51 to 43 percent on health care, coronavirus, race relations, protecting immigrant rights and climate changes.
The poll also found Biden ahead of Trump by a combined six points in 12 key swing states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — 51 to 45 percent.
The survey was conducted among 1,000 registered voters between September 13 and 16 with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
In the same poll, Biden held a 50 to 41 percent lead among registered voters last month.
Elsewhere in the debate, Williams pointed to how self-appointed militia can drive Black and Hispanic people away from polling stations with impunity.
“Self-appointed militia are wandering the streets with impunity, the police are watching them, one of the real dangers in this election, is that these self-appointed militia will actually be driving people away from the polling stations, they overwhelmingly be driving away Black and Hispanic people from polling” stations.
When asked who is in charge of making sure that the elections are free and fair, Williams, said, “Nobody. There is nobody.”
“The last vestige of this was the voting rights act which they rescinded a few years ago,” he said, adding, “Now, the local states under the control in many of these cases of local Republican very right-wing people is in charge, they can rip the ballot anyway they want.”
On whether Trump would commit to a peaceful post-election transfer of power, Williams said he would not, noting the president has consistently refused to answer questions about the issue.
“(He) has consistently refused to, he’s hedged it, he could have said exactly that, he could have said that ‘of course I would abide by democratically-achieved results,’ that he has refused to, he’s hedged (it) consistently because he has no intention of it, the guy is indeed a megalomaniac.”
On Wednesday, Trump, when asked whether he would commit to a peaceful transition, said, "Well, we're going to have to see what happens."
This is not the first time Trump is refusing to accept the outcome of the election and his stance has been consistent since the 2016 campaigning days.
The analysts were also asked about Trump’s naming of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the US Supreme Court.
“The president of the United States is appointing somebody, who in many other places, would almost be a certifiable cultist,” Williams said.
US Democratic leaders have decried Trump and the GOP for trying to install a judge to the Supreme Court in the run-up to the presidential election on November 3.
“The American people know the US Supreme Court decisions affect their everyday lives,” said Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a statement. “The United States Constitution was designed to give the voters one chance to have their voice heard on who serves on the Court.”
“That moment is now and their voice should be heard. The Senate should not act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress,” Biden said, describing Barrett as having a “written track record of disagreeing with the US Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi also slammed the decision, warning over the fate of the Obamacare.