US President Joe Biden said his Republican rival Donald Trump would "challenge" the outcome of November's presidential election if he loses, AFP reports.
"I think he will do anything to win. If I win - when I win - I think he will challenge the result," the 81-year-old Democrat said in an interview with a New Yorker reporter in January.
"I'm the only one who's ever beaten him. And I will beat him again," Joe Biden said.
"If you think you're in the best position to defeat someone who, if he wins, will change the very nature of America, what would you do?" asked the Democrat, who has always believed he was the best possible candidate to take on Donald Trump.
The American president is unpopular, his age is a serious concern for voters, and several recent polls give his Republican predecessor the edge in terms of voting intentions.
Joe Biden, however, is betting that the core message of his campaign - the defence of democracy and civil peace - will prevail.
"How can we in a democratic country elect as president a man who says violence is acceptable?" he said in an interview with the New Yorker.
The president also criticized the attitude of the press, which he said failed to appreciate the authoritarian threat posed by Donald Trump, the overwhelming favorite in the Republican primaries.
"It's like you've all become desensitized to it," he criticized. / BGNES