Biden says the election will be 'free and fair' but 'I don't know' whether it will be 'peaceful'

President Joe Biden said Friday he was confident that the November election would be "free and fair" but expressed concerns that it may not be "peaceful."

During a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing, a reporter asked Biden if he thought that the election would be free and fair and whether it would be peaceful. Biden answered, "I'm confident it will be free and fair. I don't know whether it will be peaceful.

"The things that [former President Donald] Trump has said and the things that he said last time around when he didn't like the outcome of the election were very dangerous," the president added.

Biden added that he's "concerned about what they're going to do," pointing to remarks Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, made at Tuesday's vice presidential debate where he dodged a question about whether Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, had asked Vance, “Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?”

“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance answered.

In response, Walz called Vance's comments "a damning non-answer."

“I’m pretty shocked by this. He lost the election. This is not a debate, it’s not anything anywhere other than in Donald Trump’s world," Walz added.

Biden on Friday referenced the exchange, telling reporters, "I noticed the vice presidential Republican candidate did not say he'd accept the outcome of the election. They haven't even accepted the outcome of the last election."

On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a new brief in the federal election interference case against Trump, alleging that Trump worked in a personal capacity after the 2020 presidential election to get the results overturned.

Trump "resorted to crimes to try to stay in office" in the wake of the election, special counsel Jack Smith and his team argued in the filing.

Smith also pointed to some of Trump's actions during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol as evidence that he knew he had lost the election but was trying to stay in office anyway.

Trump slammed the filing in an interview with NewsNation later Wednesday, saying, "It’s nothing new in there, by the way, nothing new.”

At the vice presidential debate, Vance dismissed Trump's actions on Jan. 6, saying that the then-president asked people to "peacefully" protest that day. He added that Trump "left the White House" several weeks later, saying that was evidence of a peaceful process.

This is a developing story.