Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wasted no time Wednesday evening condemning GOP nominee Donald Trump for refusing to say he’d accept the results of the Nov. 8 election.
“Like most Americans I have confidence in our democracy and election system. During this debate Mr. Trump is doing the party and country a great disservice by continuing to suggest the outcome of this election is out of his hands and ‘rigged’ against him,” the South Carolina lawmaker and 2016 presidential candidate said on social media following the third and final presidential debate.
“If he loses, it will not be because the system is ‘rigged’ but because he is a failed candidate,” Graham concluded.
Trump refused to say during the presidential debate in Las Vegas Wednesday evening whether he would accept the outcome of Election Day, a moment that Fox News’ Megyn Kelly characterized as “jaw-dropping.”
Instead, the closest the GOP nominee came to answering the question was when he said he would make that determination when the time comes.
“I will keep you in suspense,” Trump said.
The GOP nominee’s refusal to answer the question Wednesday evening comes shortly after his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and his daughter, Ivanka, have said he would accept the results on Nov. 8.
Trump’s reluctance to answer the question will likely do more damage than good for his campaign, according to political analysts.
“The biggest moment of this debate will be Trump’s equivocation on whether he’d accept the results of the election. That will dominate media coverage and is probably the final nail in the coffin of his campaign. It does, though, feed the conspiratorial grievance of the supporters who will watch the TV network that he likely plans to launch,” SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“”Refusing to say he’ll accept the results of the election is bad for Trump. He needs to go along with Pence and Ivanka and accept the legitimacy of the electoral system. Trump was doing well in this debate until he refused to concede electoral legitimacy. If you want to claim fraud afterwards, with evidence, fine. But preemptively? That doesn’t play well,” he said.
His SMU colleague Stephanie Martin agreed.
“It’s dangerous for Trump to suggest he won’t accept the election outcome, not only for the country, but for his electoral chances. I may be too idealistic, but to use a now-common refrain from this election, outside his so-called ‘angry base,’ most Americans are deeply proud of American democracy and think in idyllic terms about the founding, elections and peaceful transfers of power,” she said.
“There is a kind of reverence for this notion that even when you lose, you lose with grace. Trump is refusing to hold himself up to this ideal. I don’t see how this helps his cause, and it certainly gives some pause for what the post-election days could hold,” Martin said in a statement to the Examiner.
