Donald Trump’s sons say the election is plagued by ‘cheating’ and ‘voter fraud’
LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was tired of getting questions about his comments that the election is “rigged” when she spoke to reporters in the spin room at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Wednesday night.
“Is this the only question there’s going to be?” Conway said when Yahoo News asked her about his comments.
Trump, who is running behind his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in the polls, has repeatedly suggested that the vote could be rigged in recent appearances on the campaign trail. In spite of these comments, Conway and other Trump allies — including his daughter Ivanka — have suggested that he would “accept” the election results. However, on the debate stage Wednesday night, Trump made it clear that he may dispute the outcome. And in the spin room, Trump’s sons aggressively questioned the legitimacy of the race.
“I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now; I will look at it at the time,” Trump said, when the debate moderator, Chris Wallace, asked if he would accept the results of the election.
When Wallace pressed the question, Trump said, “I’ll keep you in suspense.” Clinton called his comments “horrifying.”
In the spin room, Conway said Trump would definitely accept the outcome, because he is guaranteed to emerge victorious.
“Mr. Trump will accept the results of the election, because he will win the election. And that’s going to be very simple,” said Conway.
Yahoo News asked Conway if she was willing to acknowledge “the possibility” that Trump could lose.
“Oh sure, we always see the possibility, but it’s all of you who have not seen the possibility of him winning. … All we read is the fact that the election’s over,” Conway said, adding, “Yet here we are again, with him turning in a masterful debate performance, taking the case to her over everything that she’s done wrong.”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., also appeared in the spin room, and told Yahoo News that his father would only accept the results of the election “if it’s done fair.” As evidence that the race might not be legitimate, Donald Jr. pointed to videos released by the conservative group Project Veritas Action on Tuesday that showed Democratic operatives boasting about engaging in voter fraud and disrupting Trump events.
“The American people should be disgusted at it, and he’s pointing it out,” Donald Jr. said. “If it’s done fair we will accept it, but it’s got to be done fair. It can’t be based on lies.”
Another one of Trump’s sons, Eric, told Yahoo News he believes this is a “rigged” election, pointing to what he alleged was media bias against his father. He cited data showing that journalists have made donations to Clinton and to interactions between members of the media and the Clinton campaign revealed in hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, that were published by WikiLeaks.
“Listen, I think we do have a rigged election. I think we have a media that’s very much in the tank for one person, and I think it’s very, very sad,” Eric said. “You see that based on the amount of contributions that the media has made to the Hillary campaign. You see that based on John Podesta’s emails, where effectively, they’re making fun of so many people in the mainstream media saying that they can use them at any point in time as a total puppet, to put out what stories they want, because they know they’ll write favorably, and they know they can totally control the message.”
Eric went on to say that he believes there is widespread “voter fraud.”
“I also think you do have voter fraud out there. A lot of people will deny it, but you have voter fraud,” Eric said. “You have people who were dead who were on the voter rolls, and that’s not fair.”
Fact checkers have said Trump’s claims of large-scale voter fraud are baseless and false.
Yahoo News asked Eric if he was concerned that questioning the legitimacy of the election could lead to violence or unrest. He pointed to the Project Veritas Action videos, where a Democratic Party operative bragged about causing “conflict” at Trump rallies and took credit for violence that canceled a Trump event in Chicago earlier this year. Eric argued that this proved Clinton’s campaign is responsible for making the race violent.
“I think there’s violence because of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. You saw the DNC leaks, right? And it’s very, very sad when you have one of the top Democratic operatives … in a secret video, admit to being the one who incited the violence in Chicago and who incited violence at rallies,” Eric said. “That’s criminal. That’s criminal, and the media does nothing to report it. … We deserve better as a nation. We deserve better from our parties, and I can tell you my father won’t put up with that kind of stuff.”
