Michigan GOP: Donald Trump Right in Stance on Election Outcome

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was right in Wednesday’s presidential debate when he refused to say whether he would accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, Michigan Republican Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said.

“I will look at it at the time,” Trump said, dodging the question posed by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News, who asked Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton if they would “absolutely accept” the outcome of the election.

“What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time,” Trump added. “I will keep you in suspense. OK?”

Clinton fired back, calling Trump’s answer “horrifying” and saying he was “talking down our democracy.”

“That is not the way our democracy works,” Clinton said. “We’ve been around for 240 years. We have had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what is expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election.”

Trump’s break from a storied tradition of vanquished presidential candidates promising to abide by Americans’ decision at the ballot box for the good of the nation have fueled more criticism against the Republican nominee, who has complained of a “rigged system” he thinks is designed to throw the election to Clinton.

“How can Donald Trump right now say exactly what’s going to happen after Election Day?” McDaniel told The Detroit News. “... I think it’s good to say, ‘Let’s just wait, let’s just wait until after the election, we want to make sure there’s no voter fraud.’ ”

McDaniel pointed out former Vice President Al Gore had pledged to abide by the results of the 2000 election before his campaign won a court order for a recount in Florida’s Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Volusia counties after the discovery of hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads on Florida's punch-card ballots.

The outcome of the 2000 election hung in the balance for 36 days. Only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the process in the court-ordered recount process in Florida was unconstitutional did Gore concede defeat to President George W. Bush.

For the Trump campaign, hacked emails from the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee are the hanging chads of the 2016 presidential campaign.

McDaniel told The Detroit News that emails released by WikiLeaks show the DNC showed bias toward Clinton over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries. She also cited undercover video footage released by conservative journalist James O’Keefe and his organization, Project Veritas Action, that purportedly shows operatives discussing methods for inciting violence at rallies for the Republican nominee.

“So there are real issues with the ethical judgment of the DNC and the Clinton campaign right now and I think that’s a question that needs to be answered,” the Michigan GOP chairwoman said.

The two operatives — Scott Foval of Americans United For Change and Robert Creamer of Clinton’s unified Democratic campaign — lost their jobs over the undercover video Wednesday.

Trump taunted Clinton with references to O’Keefe’s expose and claimed she and President Barack Obama “cause the violence” at his rallies. “They hired people — they paid them $1,500, and they’re on tape saying: Be violent, cause fights, do bad things,” Trump said.

Clinton didn’t acknowledge Trump’s accusation. Instead, she mocked him:

“Every time Donald thinks things aren't going in his direction, he claims everything is rigged against him. The FBI conducted a yearlong investigation into my emails. They found nothing. He said it was rigged. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. He claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.”

“Should have gotten it,” Trump interrupted.

Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Brandon Dillon called Trump’s non-committal answer about accepting the outcome of the election “one of the most outlandish and dangerous things he’s said” during what has been an unusual presidential election campaign.

“To actively suggest that he would be willing to undermine that system as a major presidential candidate is not only unprecedented, it’s potentially harmful to our entire form of government and the Constitution,” Dillon told The Detroit News. “Now he’s engaging in a full on attack on the entire democratic form of government.”

McDaniels’ position is consistent with the one advanced Thursday by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on MSNBC’S “Morning Joe.”

“It would be ridiculous for him to [foreclose] the possibility, and go through every hypothetical possible in the world if he’s losing by a couple of points somewhere, or a couple of votes somewhere rather, then perhaps he’ll look at it then,” she said. “That’s probably what he meant.”

Conway added: “Why would he [set aside] the possibility until we know what the results are, and they’re certified and they’re verified?”

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine said that while Trump may not have been laying the groundwork for a challenge regardless of the margin of the election, Trump’s campaign rhetoric has been that the election is rigged against him.

“If all Donald Trump had said [was], 'We’ll wait and see,' and he hadn’t been for weeks talking about the fact that the election is rigged, challenging the ability of America to produce a sound democratic election, then it wouldn’t have been a big story,” Kaine said on “Morning Joe.”

“But the fact that he’s been pushing this notion that if he loses, it’s gotta be because things are rigged against him, that’s why the moment was so powerful,” Kaine said.

Back on the campaign trail in Ohio Thursday, Trump showed no signs of backing away from the comment.

“I want to make a major announcement today,” Trump said. “I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election — if I win.”

He did add that he would accept a “clear result” but would reserve his right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result. “Of course, I will follow and abide by the rules and traditions of all of the many candidates that have come before me. Bottom line, we’re going to win. We’re going to win so big.”

Photo illustration using photos by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons and Michigan Republican Party