Despite rebukes from fellow Republicans and assurances from surrogates that Donald Trump really would accept the results of the presidential election, his campaign appears to be all-in helping him joke about the matter.
According to an advance draft of Trump’s remarks in Ohio on Thursday, speechwriters provided Trump two options for him to josh about denying the outcome on November 8. The text reads:
In his speech, Trump went with the first option, and pointed to the crowd with a large smile on his face. His supporters cheered loudly.
“All right. Seriously, the debate last night was amazing, and everybody said I won, including every single online poll, and some had it at close to 90 percent,” he continued. “The question of voter fraud came up during the debate. We want fairness in the election. This is having nothing to do with me but having to do with the future of the country. We have to have fairness.”
Trump said during the debate Wednesday night that he’d keep everyone in “suspense” over whether or not he’d accept the election results in a few weeks. “‘l’ll tell you at the time,” he told moderator Chris Wallace.
The candidate’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN after the debate that “Donald Trump will accept the results of the election because he will win the election,” and she would advise him to do so on Election Day “absent evidence of widespread abuse and irregularities” regardless of the winner. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, said earlier Wednesday that she “believe[s] he’ll accept the outcome either way.”
The GOP nominee has received widespread criticism from Republican officials for his comments, including from former presidential rival Lindsey Graham. “If he loses, it will not be because the system is ‘rigged’ but because he failed as a candidate,” the South Carolina senator said Wednesday night.
