This combination of file photos shows US President Donald Trump (L) and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Assailing his opponent Joe Biden, President Donald Trump is refusing to publicly commit to accepting the results of the upcoming White House election, recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote.
Scoffing at polls showing him lagging behind the Democrat candidate, Trump says it's too early to make such an ironclad guarantee.
“I have to see. Look ... I have to see,” Trump told moderator Chris Wallace during a wide-ranging interview on Fox News Channel. “No, I’m not going to just say ‘yes.’ I’m not going to say ‘no,’ and I didn’t last time, either.”
Trump tried to paint Biden as "not competent" to lead the United States in the interview "Fox News Sunday."
"He's shot, he's mentally shot," Trump said. He said that if Biden is elected on November 3, he will "destroy this country."
Facing the multiple challenges of a spreading pandemic, racial unrest and a struggling economy, Trump said Biden would "triple your taxes" and "defund the police."
Covid, the deciding factor?
Trump has seen his presidential popularity erode over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and in the aftermath of nationwide protests centred on racial injustice that erupted after Floyd's death in Minneapolis for nearly two months.
Trump contends that a series of polls that show his popularity eroding and Biden holding an advantage are faulty.
He says Republican voters are underrepresented in such surveys.
“First of all, I’m not losing, because those are fake polls,” Trump said in the taped interview, which aired Sunday. “They were fake in 2016, and now they’re even more fake. The polls were much worse in 2016.”
Confederate flag
Trump also declined to say the Confederate flag was an offensive symbol in an interview, saying it is a source of pride for people who love the South.
He was asked if the flag, considered a symbol of slavery and oppression by most Americans, was offensive.
"It depends on who you’re talking about, when you’re talking about," Trump responded.
"When people proudly had their Confederate flags they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag, it represents the South. They like the South ... I say it’s freedom of many things, but it’s freedom of speech."
Trump has in the past appeared sympathetic to the flag and symbols of the Confederacy of the 1861-65 American Civil War.
In 2017, he decried the removal of monuments to the Confederacy, laying blame on “both sides” in Charlottesville, Virginia, after protests against the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, a Confederate general.
Earlier this month, he criticised NASCAR’s ban of the Confederate flag from its events, spurred by the national debate about race after George Floyd's death.
READ MORE: Push against colonial, Confederate statues sees support after Floyd's death
Confederate generals
Trump has promised a veto, breaking with several of his fellow Republicans in Congress, of the annual National Defense Authorization Act over an amendment to remove the names of Confederate generals from military bases within a year.
“We won World Wars out of these, out of these military bases, no I’m not gonna go changing. I’m not gonna go changing.” Trump said in the interview, which was taped on Friday.
He also hammered the Pentagon brass for favoring renaming bases that honor Confederate military leaders. “I don’t care what the military says,” the commander in chief said.
READ MORE: A look at US statues toppled for symbolising racism
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