During a rally in Delaware, Ohio this afternoon, Donald Trump said that he will accept the results of the November election…if he wins.
This came hours after the final presidential debate, where Trump made headlines for refusing to say that he will definitely accept the result of the election. When Trump opened his rally today, it appeared that he was going to flip-flop on this issue and attempt to change the media narrative. But instead, he only doubled down on the fact that he potentially will not concede the election to Hillary Clinton if he loses.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to make a major announcement today…I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win,” Trump said.
Trump emphasized those last three words and laughed as his supporters all cheered. Trump said, “But seriously…” before continuing on to the remainder of the rally, during which he talked about allegations of voter fraud. He said that there are over a million deceased people who are currently registered to vote, which is true, although this is simply because they have not been removed from the system yet, and there is no evidence that this has lead to any major voter fraud.
In his Ohio rally, Trump also said that he thought it was ridiculous that he was being asked to concede the race during last night’s debate. In fact, Trump was simply asked to say that he will accept the results of the election no matter what they are, something Hillary Clinton has also agreed to do. During the first debate, Trump said that he would “absolutely” accept the election results, but as his polls have started to dip, he has changed his tune.
Trump did eventually say in Ohio today that he would accept “a clear election result” but adding that if the result is questionable, he may contest it.
“I would reserve my legal right to challenge a questionable result,” Trump said.
Although individual instances of voter fraud have popped up over the years, there is not currently any evidence that any voter fraud has ever taken place on a scale that would come remotely close to affecting the result of a presidential election.