After the White House said that the president would accept the election results if he loses on November 3, Trump himself again questioned the cleanliness of the elections.
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“We want to make sure the election is honest and I’m not sure it can be,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One, bound for North Carolina.
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A day after Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, prompting reprimands from Democrats, a nervous distancing from Republicans and attempts at reassurance by the White House, the president intervened again Thursday, saying that he wasn’t sure the November elections could be “honest” because mail-in ballots are “a big scam.”
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Instead of repeating his press secretary’s claim earlier that day that he would accept the results of a “free and fair” election, Trump launched his latest complaint about vote-by-mail ballots, which he has repeatedly claimed without evidence that they are tainted by a widespread fraud, and suggested that the election, in fact, will not be decided fairly.
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“So we have to be very careful with the ballots. The ballots, you know, that’s a big scam, “said Trump, citing what he said was news about” ballots found “in a river and in” a garbage can. “
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Earlier in the day, Christopher A. Wray, the director of the FBI, told lawmakers that he had seen no evidence of a “coordinated effort at national election fraud,” undermining Trump’s effort to stoke ballot fears. by mail.
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The president’s remarks had a different tone than other prominent Republicans, who spent the day making it clear that they were committed to the orderly transfer of power.
His refusal on Wednesday to commit to accepting the November election results, if he loses, is something no other modern president has ever questioned, prompting Democrats to condemn him as a threat to American democracy.
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Trump cited an August comment from Hillary Clinton, who said former Vice President Joe Biden “should not compromise under any circumstances.”
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However, Clinton was referring only to election night, warning that a final and exact count may not be known until days or weeks later, in part due to potentially late mail ballots that Trump intends to discredit. .
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