During the final presidential debate on Wednesday, Donald Trump refused to say that he’ll definitely concede the election if he loses on November 8th.
Towards the end of the debate, Chris Wallace asked Trump very overtly if he would commit to accepting the election results no matter who wins. Trump would not say that he would, stating instead that he would take a look at what happens.
“I will take a look at it at the time,” Trump said.
This completely contradicts what he said during the first debate a few weeks ago; at that time, Trump said that he would “absolutely” concede to Clinton if he loses. Trump went on to say on Wednesday that he’ll “keep you in suspense” as to whether he will accept Hillary Clinton’s potential win. Hillary Clinton said that she finds it “horrifying” that Trump is undermining the way that democracy works.
To back up his hesitation to concede the election, Trump said that Clinton should not have been allowed to run for president and that the media has been unfair to him. He also cited voter fraud, although there is no evidence of voter fraud taking place on any level that would come close to affecting the result of a presidential election.
Over the past several days, as pointed out by Chris Wallace, Trump’s running mate and daughter both promised that Trump would definitely accept the result of the election.
“As Donald Trump said in that first debate, and I will say to you today, we will accept the will of the American people,” Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, said just three days ago. Pence repeated this promise in an interview with CNN about a half-hour before the third debate.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka made the same assertion this week.
“He’ll either win or he won’t win, and I believe he’ll accept the outcome either way,” she said.