Citing Trump, Biden says he can’t guarantee election will be peaceful in president’s first remarks from White House press room

Citing his predecessor’s history of inciting violence, President Joe Biden on Friday warned that he could not guarantee that the coming presidential election and transition period would be a peaceful, as he made his first appearance in the White House press briefing room since taking office 1,353 days ago.

Asked if he has confidence that the 2024 election would be both free and fair as well as peaceful, Biden told reporters he has confidence that the November 5 election will be “free and fair” but he demurred on the latter, citing previous actions by his predecessor, former president Donald Trump.

“The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn't like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Biden said.

He added that Trump’s running-mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, has also not said whether he’d accept the outcome of the coming election if he and the ex-president do not win.

“So I'm concerned about what they're going to do,” Biden said.

Biden’s first-ever visit to the briefing room since taking the oath of office in January 2021 came just hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment data for last month that blew past analyst predictions, and on the heels of his administration negotiating a deal to put off a potentially catastrophic strike at major US ports until next year while the parties continue negotiations.

He entered the briefing room, which is a roughly 30-second walk from the Oval Office, at approximately 2:08 pm Eastern Time on Friday.

He greeted reporters with a joke by introducing himself: “My name is Joe Biden.”

The president told reporters that the past two days had produced “very good news for the American economy,’ starting with the agreement