TRUMP HINTS AT NOT ACCEPTING RESULT
‘WILL KEEP SUSPENSE’ Republican nominee stuns country, says he’ll honour poll verdict ‘if he wins’
WASHINGTON: The bitterly divisive 2016 race for the White House appears headed for an even more bitterly divided ending, with Donald Trump refusing to say at the third and final debate on Wednesday if he will accept the election outcome.
“I will tell you at the time,” the Republican told moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News when asked whether he will accept the outcome if he lost. “I will keep you in suspense.”
“That’s horrifying,” Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee replied, catching her opponent on perhaps his worst moment of a night he was supposed to try and turn around his campaign. “That is not the way our democracy works.”
Hours after the debate, Trump said he will “totally accept” the results of the presidential election “if I win”.
If the Republican nominee’s intention was to leave the stage with the headline of the night, he succeeded. Almost every news platform — print, TV and online — was leading with his refusal to commit himself to accepting the election results.
The New York Times called it the “most stunning statement from a major party candidate”. The Washington Post described it as a “startling break from American democratic tradition” and “explosive”. The Wall Street Journal said it was “stunning”.
The question came up in the context of recent complaints from the Republican nominee about election frauds and rigging and that the elections could be “stolen” from — a possibility that has been summarily dismissed by all but some Trump surrogates.
Trump, 70, had needed a good, solid debate to stanch the bleeding in his campaign, plunging poll numbers, allegations of sexual assault on women, a 2005 tape on which he had boasted of groping women.
And for the first few minutes of the Wednesday debate, Trump looked he might be able to deliver. He seemed even-tempered, went toe-to-toe with Clinton on Supreme Court appointments, gun control, without insults or interruptions. They disagreed, but stayed civil.
Then Clinton poked him on immigration, saying he “choked” when he failed to bring up the wall, his campaign’s central promise, in a meeting with the Mexican president in August.
Trump, the counterpuncher, took the bait and soon turned into the snippy, easily-riled man he is known to be. He interrupted her repeatedly, just saying, “wrong”. He called her “liar” and her of running a “sleazy” campaign”.
During a discussion on entitlements — social security and medicare benefits — Clinton poked him on his taxes, and he called her a “nasty woman”.
Clinton, who went into the date with a 7.5-point lead in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, looked and behaved in complete control of her answers. She defended her positions and policies, and attacked with tightly framed formulations.
And she had her zingers. Talking about Trump’s open admiration for Vladimir Putin she said he would be a “puppet” of the Russian president. She challenged the Republican to condemn Russia, which has been blamed by the US intelligence community for a string of recent hackings of the Democratic Party network and her campaign chair’s emails.
“She has no idea whether it’s Russia, China, or anybody else,” Trump replied. And when reminded by Clinton that 17 intelligence agencies had pointed to Russia, Trump added, “Hillary, you have no idea. Our country has no idea.”
Trump went to declare himself the winner, citing some stray snap-polls in support. But Clinton had done decidedly better.