After days of suggesting that the U.S. presidential election vote would be “rigged,” Donald Trump doubled down on that unprecedented accusation, refusing to say that he would accept the results of the vote should he lose on Nov. 8.
“I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now; I will look at it at the time,” he said.
His reason, he said, was the fact that the “corrupt media” was biased against him, that “millions of people are registered to vote who shouldn’t be registered to vote,” and finally, that Clinton “should not be allowed to run. She’s guilty of a very very serious crime,” he said, alluding to her destroyed emails. “In just that respect, I say it’s rigged.”
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His comments were made on a day when Trump’s own running mate, his daughter and his campaign manager had all said separately that they would absolutely accept the results and expected the vote to be fair.
“Absent evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities and a close election, then yes, we’ll accept the results,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told Yahoo News in Las Vegas the night before the debate. “But we’re actually going to embrace the results, because we’re going to win the election.”
Trump’s answer also invited a sharp follow-up from Wallace: “But sir, there is a tradition in this country — in fact one of the prides of this country — is the peaceful transition of power, and no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign, a loser concedes to the winner… and that the country comes together for the good of the country.”
Trump responded by repeating his original answer. “I will tell you at the time,” he said, with a smirk. “I’ll keep you in suspense.”
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Donald Trump takes part in the third and final 2016 presidential campaign debate at UNLV in Las Vegas on Oct. 19, 2016. (Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters)
That brought a sharp rebuttal from Clinton. “Chris, let me respond to that, because that is horrifying,” she said. “Every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is is rigged against him. The FBI conducted a yearlong investigation into my emails. They concluded there was no case. He said that the FBI was rigged. He lost the Iowa caucus, he lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering. He claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged.”
“I should have gotten it,” Trump interjected, meaning the Emmy.
“This is funny, but is also really troubling,” Clinton said. “This is not the way our democracy works. We’ve been around for 240 years. We have had free and fair elections. We have accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected of anyone standing on the debate stage during a general election.”
