Biden says he is 'not confident' of peaceful US election

US President Joe Biden has said he is not confident the US election in November would be peaceful, citing incendiary comments by republican contender Donald Trump, who still rejects his 2020 defeat.

Mr Biden's warning came with politicians and analysts voicing concern over campaign language ahead of the vote.

Mr Trump, who survived an assassination bid in July and another apparent plot in September, alleged widespread fraud after his defeat to Mr Biden in 2020, and pro-Trump rioters riled up by his false claims stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

"I'm confident it will be free and fair. I don't know whether it will be peaceful," Mr Biden told reporters as he discussed the election.

"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."

Mr Trump was impeached in 2021 for inciting the insurrection after hundreds of his supporters, exhorted by him to "fight like hell", clashed with police as they smashed windows at the Capitol and broke through doors.

'They cheat like hell'

Mr Trump has been indicted over what prosecutors allege was a "private criminal effort" to subvert the election that culminated in the violence.

The former US president, who is due to return to the venue of his first assassination bid in Butler, Pennsylvania, has long been assailed over his violent rhetoric.

Mr Biden made his comments during what was the first appearance of his presidency in the White House briefing room, where he touted his administration's achievements as his vice president, Kamala Harris, battles Mr Trump.

The November rivals meanwhile were campaigning in battleground states that are likely to decide November's election.

Mr Trump campaigned in North Carolina, where he reprised his claims of 2020 voter fraud:

"We should get elected, but remember this, they cheat like hell," he said.

The republican also visited neighbouring Georgia, a swing state narrowly claimed by Mr Biden four years ago but won by Mr Trump in 2016, and one of the biggest prizes of the 2024 election map.

Mr Trump, 78, was charged by state prosecutors with racketeering, in a case that is on pause and expected to start up again after the election. He denies wrongdoing.

'Biggest loser'

Mr Trump joined Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp after receiving a briefing on the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005.

The former president has repeatedly spread misinformation about the federal response to the disaster, falsely alleging that funding for relief has been misappropriated by Ms Harris and redirected towards migrants.

Ms Harris, who is neck-and-neck with the former president in all seven swing states, rallied in Michigan, a union stronghold that epitomises the US manufacturing decline of the 1980s.

The democratic contender accused Mr Trump of jeopardising Michigan auto jobs.

"This is a man who has only ever fought for himself. This is a man who has been a union buster his entire career," she said at a stop in Detroit.

Later, in the city of Flint, she branded Mr Trump "one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs in American history."

Flint is a majority black city where a 2010s scandal over lead-tainted water highlighted government mismanagement and the disproportionate damage to poor and non-white communities.

Ms Harris reminded rally goers that the election is just one month away, and early voting has already begun in several states.

"Folks, the election is here. And we need to energise, organise and mobilise," Ms Harris said.