I will accept result as long as I win
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump charged into the final stretch of the White House race relishing the furore unleashed by his threat to reject the election result, even as he appeared to retreat slightly from that unprecedented position.
The Republican nominee has warned repeatedly in recent days of a ‘‘rigged’’ election and he insisted at the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday night that he would keep the American people ‘‘in suspense’’ as to whether he would accept a hypothetical defeat at the polls.
As his supporters pedalled furiously to divert attention away from his insurrectionary suggestion, Trump revelled in the controversy at a rally in the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday.
‘‘I would like to promise and pledge to all my voters and supporters and all of the people in the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic election,’’ he told them, adding after a pause: ‘‘If I win!’’
Uncharacteristically he adjusted his position after a barrage of overnight criticism from across the political spectrum, saying: ‘‘Of course I will accept a clear election result but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.’’
He nevertheless cited Hillary Clinton, who he called ‘‘the most corrupt and dishonest person’’ ever to seek the office of president, as grounds for suspecting the legitimacy of the electoral process. Immediately after the debate, Trump’s own campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, appeared to distance herself from his suggestion, telling CNN that he ‘‘will accept the results of the election because he’s going to win the election’’.
Trump trails Clinton by 6 per cent in a fourway race that includes the Green and Libertarian candidates, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. It is a margin that no previous nominee has overhauled in the final three weeks of a campaign, although loyal backers argue that he has a reach and appeal unlike any previous presidential candidate.
Mike Huckabee, the Republican former governor of Arkansas, predicted a Trump victory but said that he needed to avoid being ‘‘pulled into the vortex’’ over electoral fraud and must focus instead on the substantive issues that will ‘‘convince people to go vote for him’’.
However, Trump is behind in nearly all the big contested states and was widely thought to need a knock-out performance in the debate.
The tycoon did deliver his most polished and composed performance of the three debates against a confident and aggressive Clinton, although he again allowed himself to be unsettled by her personal attacks. She called him a ‘‘puppet’’ of Vladimir Putin who shed ‘‘crocodile tears’’ for American workers while handing big contracts to China and Mexico and, in a particularly effective moment, said that he ‘‘thinks belittling women makes him bigger’’.
He lost much of his early discipline and poise, interrupting much more frequently in the second half of the debate and calling her a ‘‘nasty woman’’.
Nearly half of voters in 13 battleground states chose Clinton as the debate winner, according to a CBS News poll, compared to fewer than four in ten who thought Trump won.
Clinton framed the tycoon as a danger to democracy, later telling reporters: ‘‘One of our [country’s] hallmarks has always been that we accept the outcomes of our election.’’
Her outrage was shared by Republican leaders. John McCain, the defeated Republican nominee in 2008, said the gracious concession of defeat in a presidential election was ‘‘an act of respect for the will of the American people, a respect that is every American leader’s first responsibility’’.
Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist, said that Trump had been having a ‘‘really good night’’ until he committed ‘‘political suicide’’.
Establishment Republicans are becoming increasingly alarmed that Trump’s campaign is damaging their chances of holding on to the Senate. ‘‘The biggest loser tonight was not Trump – the presidential race is over,’’ said Robert Blizzard, a Republican pollster told Politico. ‘‘Instead, down-ticket Republicans lost.’’ The Times