Trump may not accept poll results
DONALD Trump will face the final 20 days of the US election campaign under broad attack for threatening the very foundations of American democracy after refusing to say he would accept the election result if he loses.
In the last public Trump v Clinton showdown, the billionaire failed to strike the knockout blow he wanted to gain control ahead of the dying days of the campaign.
But, after days of riling his supporters up to look out for signs of a rigged election, Mr Trump declared “I’ll tell you at the time, I’ll keep you in suspense,” when asked if he would accept the vote.
Mr Trump, who is lagging in the polls and needed the final debate clash to broaden his voter base and make up ground, sparred with Ms Clinton on some of the most substantive and divisive issues of the entire debate series – gun laws, abortion, immigration and the economy.
The pair painted vastly different visions for America – Mr Trump’s a place where the right to bear arms is fiercely protected and abortion is restricted, and Ms Clinton’s one where guns face tougher restrictions and abortion rights are protected.
These are key vote-deciding issues that have the potential to win Mr Trump hard-line conservatives deep in Middle America who were never swept up in his anti-establishment narrative. But, after a solid opening 30 minutes in which Mr Trump appeared to gain ground on policy questions, he captured international headlines when he demurred on accepting the election result.
Ms Clinton shot back: “that’s horrifying”.
Mr Trump also risked offending key demographics he needed to win, referring to Mexicans as “bad hombres” and labelling Ms Clinton “such a nasty woman” under his breath as she spoke. But Ms Clinton faced her own blow, when moderator Chris Wallace called her out on WikiLeaks documents that showed she had spoken in favour of open borders in a speech to big banks.
Ms Clinton had accused Mr Trump of a “rank mischaracterisation” when he said she favoured an open border policy, at which point Wallace brought up the WikiLeaks speech excerpts.
Ms Clinton tried to brush the contradiction aside, and instead raised the spectre of Vladimir Putin, blaming him for the hacks that had leaked her speeches and labelling Mr Trump the Russian’s “puppet”.
Mr Trump said he did not know Mr Putin, but that the Russian leader had outsmarted Ms Clinton and President Barack Obama repeatedly.
“You’re the puppet,” Mr Trump said.
He refused to concede Russia was behind the hacks, despite US authorities concluding that was the case.
“You continue to get help from him because he continues to have a very clear favourite in this race ... 17 intelligence agencies have found that these attacks come from the highest level of the Kremlin,” Ms Clinton said.
“You doubt 17 intelligence agencies?”
Voting is already taking place in more than 30 states ahead of the November 8 polling day – November 9 in Australia.