Trump told to ‘stop whining’
PRESIDENT Barack Obama on Tuesday slapped down Donald Trump’s claim that this year’s presidential race is rigged, telling the Republican nominee to “stop whining” and get on with his campaign.
The withering riposte, in language usually used to scold a moody teenager, came on the eve of the third and final presidential debate between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Obama discarded diplomatic decorum, skewering the Republican mogul from the Rose Garden in front of visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Trump has ramped-up conspiracies about America’s election system as his poll numbers have plummeted in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him.
He trails Clinton by about seven points nationwide and bookmakers in Europe – where political betting is legal – have already begun to pay out on a Clinton win.
But the White House is increasingly concerned that Trump and his supporters will not recognise the election’s outcome, plunging the country into a political crisis.
According to a poll by Politico and Morning Consult, 41% of American voters, including 73% of Republicans, now believe the vote could actually from Trump.
“I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place. It’s unprecedented,” Obama said.
“If, whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don’t have what it takes to be in this job,” he said, pointing to the White House .
Addressing Trump’s allegations of “large-scale voter fraud”, Obama said, “There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.
“I’d advise Mr Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.”
Trump and Clinton jetted in separately on Tuesday to Las Vegas, the entertainment capital in the Nevada desert, ahead of their final debate yesterday.
Campaigning on Tuesday in Colorado, Trump insisted polls giving Clinton the lead were inaccurate. Trump doubleddown on his vote-rigging claims, saying “voter fraud is all too common”. There are only three weeks to go until the November 8 elections. — AFP be stolen