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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that President Joe Biden “still stands” by his claim that President-elect Donald Trump is an “existential threat,” even though he also wants a peaceful transfer of power.

Jean-Pierre was asked about Biden’s earlier descriptions of Trump during the campaign, given his warm reception for Trump last week and seeming comfort with the idea of a man Democrats likened to Adolf Hitler returning to office.

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She said:

There was an election when the American people spoke. The will of the American people were very clear, right? And so the president is now in a situation where we have to deal with a peaceful transfer of power. We have to respect the will of the American people, and that’s what you have been seeing from this president, trying to lead by example to make sure that that happens, and that’s what the American people deserve. That’s what the president deserves, and that’s what I think he was very clear about in the Rose Garden when he delivered his remarks two days after the election, and he said he was very honest, said these — you know, and again I’m not quoting him exactly — but these were not the results that we had wanted, right? And that’s just being honest. They weren’t, but we are now in a position where he believes he has to lead by example and show what a peaceful transfer of power looks like. And so that’s what you’re seeing from this president and you know, to the points that you made, you know, I’ve been asked about existential threat. I’ve been asked about a threat to our democracy. The president is always going to be honest with the American people. He feels like he is obligated. What he said still stands, but we are now in a different place. We are. The American people spoke. They deserve a peaceful transfer of power. That’s what this president wants to do. … His thoughts and what he said, his thinking on that has not changed. It has not, and I think he was very clear about what he believes should have been done or how we should move forward, how, you know, he was very clear during those moments that he spoke about it. Right now, he wants to lead by example, and talk and show the American people what it looks like to have an efficient, effective transfer of power, and he believes that is what the American people deserve, and I’m just going to leave it there for now.

Critics on both sides of the aisle have suggested that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris never really believed Trump was an existential threat to America at all, given the fact that they seemed to respect his victory in the election.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.