Post-debate turmoil
Trump’s attack on integrity of this year’s process reverberates in both campaigns
las vegas» A wave of apprehension and anguish swept the Republican Party on Thursday, with many GOP leaders alarmed by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of the election and concluding it is probably too late to salvage his flailing presidential campaign.
As the Republican nominee reeled from a turbulent performance in the final debate here in Las Vegas, his party’s embattled senators and House members scrambled to protect their seats and preserve the GOP’s congressional majorities against what Republicans privately acknowledge could be a landslide victory for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
With 19 days until the election, the Republican Party is in a state of historic turmoil, encapsulated by Trump’s extraordinary debate declaration that he would leave the nation in “suspense” about whether he accepts the results from an election he has claimed will be “rigged” or even “stolen.”
The immediate responses from GOP officials were divergent and vague, with no clear strategy on how to handle Trump’s threat. The candidate was defiant and would not back away from his position, telling a roaring crowd Thursday in Ohio that he would accept the results “if I win” — and reserving his right to legally challenge the results should he fall short.
For seasoned Republicans who have watched Trump warily as a general election candidate, the aftermath of Wednesday’s debate brought a feeling of finality.
“The campaign is over,” said Steve Schmidt, a Trump critic and former senior strategist on George W. Bush and John McCain’s presidential campaigns.
Meanwhile, top Democrats fanned out to battleground states on Thursday to hammer Trump for what they described as an unprecedented attack on the country’s political system and to attempt to yoke Trump to Republican candidates down the ballot.
Campaigning in Miami, President Barack Obama said Trump’s doubts about the election outcome is “not a joking matter. That is dangerous.”
The president eviscerated Republicans who have stood by Trump, singling out Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who called Trump “a dangerous con artist” and condemned his more controversial comments during the GOP primaries but now plans to vote for him.
“Marco just seems to care about hanging on to his job,” Obama said, calling the senator’s positioning “the height of cynicism.”
And in Arizona, where polls show an unexpectedly tight presidential race, first lady Michelle Obama said Trump “is threatening the very idea of America itself ” by suggesting he would not honor the election results.
“You do not keep American democracy ‘in suspense,’ ” Obama said in Phoenix.
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Clinton’s vice presidential running mate, held a rally at a downtown Charlotte, N.C., brewery where he said Trump’s claims of a “rigged” election reminded him of the Third World politicking he had seen as a young missionary in Honduras.
“The bigger we can win by, the harder it is for him to whine and have anyone believe him,” Kaine said, trying to galvanize supporters on the first day of early voting in North Carolina.
On the debate stage, Trump amplified what he had been saying for weeks at his rallies: that the election is “rigged.”
Questioned directly as to whether he would accept the results should Clinton prevail, Trump said, “I’ll keep you in suspense.”
Clinton called Trump’s answer “horrifying,” both in the debate and to reporters overnight on her flight home to New York.
Trump’s advisers and surrogates struggled to explain the candidate’s position. Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said it was too early to determine whether voting irregularities could make the difference between winning and losing. She and other Trump backers drew a parallel to then-Vice President Al Gore’s concession call to thenTexas Gov. George W. Bush, which he later withdrew as he awaited a recount in Florida.
“I’m going to keep reminding everybody about the 2000 election when Al Gore said he would accept the results of the election and then did not,” Conway said.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, contended that Trump and the party would stand by the results unless the margin is small enough to warrant a recount or legal challenges. Priebus said Trump is merely preserving flexibility in the event of a contested result.
“All he’s saying is, ‘Look, I’m not going to forgo my right to a recount in a close election,’ “Priebus said. “We accept the results as long as we’re not talking about a few votes where it actually matters. I know him. I know where his head’s at . . . I promise you, that’s all this is.’”
Democrats expressed dismay that the Republican nominee and his backers were advancing the idea of widespread voter fraud.
“He is just trying to find an excuse for the fact that he’s going to lose, and perhaps the fact that he’s going to lose to the first woman president stings a little sharper than it might otherwise,” said Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign’s communications director.
Prominent Republican senators in tough re-election bids condemned Trump’s posture. “Donald Trump needs to accept the outcome,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said in a statement.
McCain, R-Ariz., who lost to Obama eight years ago, said in a statement: “I didn’t like the outcome of the 2008 election. But I had a duty to concede. A concession isn’t just an act of graciousness. It is an act of respect for the will of the American people.”
Adding to the Republican angst was Trump’s rally Thursday in Delaware, Ohio, where he advanced conspiracies swirling around far-right websites about Clinton. He referenced reports that Democratic operatives with no direct connection to the Clinton campaign hired people to violently disrupt Trump events.
“This criminal behavior that violates centuries of tradition of peaceful democratic elections, a campaign like Clinton’s that will incite violence is truly a campaign that will do anything to win,” Trump said, going on to call Clinton “a candidate who is truly capable of anything, including voter fraud.”
Even as his party loses faith, Trump proclaimed that he was poised for victory.
“Bottom line, we’re going to win,” he told the boisterous Ohio crowd. “We’re going to win. We’re going to win so big.”