Trump hints he won’t accept election result if he doesn’t win

Donald Trump has hinted he will accept the result of the presidential election only if he wins.

When asked if he’ll respect what is a longtime American tradition in democracy, he told moderator and Fox News anchor Chris Wallace: “I’ll tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.”

Hillary Clinton described his response as “horrifying”.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump clashed over abortion, gun rights and immigration on live TV Thursday night, in the final presidential debate in this year’s election.

The two candidates didn’t shake hands as they entered the stage of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where the debate was held.

Six topics were identified in the debate: national debt, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign policy and how fit each candidate was to be president. Each of the topics was given a 15-minute segment, for 90 minutes total, and started with a question that each candidate had two minutes to answer.

The first question was about what role both candidates see for the Supreme Court and what their judicial philosophy is. Mrs. Clinton was the first to answer.  

“The Supreme Court really raises the central issue in this election, namely what kind of country are we going to be?” she said and elaborated that the Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the people, not corporations.

Mrs. Clinton reaffirmed her desire to protect same-sex marriage, rights in the workplace, and the right to abortion outlined in Roe v Wade.

Meanwhile Mr. Trump maintained that the Supreme Court shouldn’t interpret the Constitution, but instead focus on the original intent of the USA’s founders with respect to how the Constitution was drafted.

He also said his Supreme Court nominees would be “pro-life” and with a “conservative bent”.

This question allowed him to talk about his defence of the Second Amendment. He said he is honoured to be “endorsed” by the NRA.

Mrs. Clinton rejected claims that she was against the Second Amendment, and called for comprehensive background checks, closing loopholes and “sensible reforms”.

When the topic switched to immigration, Trump proclaimed with enthusiasm that “we have some bad, bad people in this country they have to go out.”

“We’re a nation of immigrants. I’m introducing comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship,” said Hillary.

For the remainder of the debate Trump managed to launch a few personal attacks at Clinton, specifically in regards to her own scandals and mistakes. But Clinton held her ground and returned the jibes.

When the question about foreign policy came, Clinton accused Trump of being a “puppet” of Russian president Vladimir Putin. He replied with the same allegation that she’s the puppet.

Chris Wallace’s questions did an excellent job of showing how both candidates would do little to slow down the growth of the debt.

When asked why they are ignoring the problem of the rising national debt, Trump said, “We have to use our great people. We will create an economic machine the likes of which we haven’t seen in many decades.”

Clinton’s plan seemed very different. She claimed she does not add “a penny to the national debt”, and the way to pay for education and invest in infrastructure is taxes.

“We’re going where the money is. We’re going to ask the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share.”

She ended her statement by saying that they have to get back to rebuilding the middle class.  

The last question was whether each of the candidates would make a deal to save Medicare and Social security that includes both tax increases and benefit cuts.

Trump said he would cut taxes, and promised to grow the economy, which will then grow at a record rate.

He also blamed Obamacare for “destroying our country, destroying our businesses, our small businesses and our big businesses”.

Clinton, however, defended her position and support of benefits:

“I am on record as saying that we need to put more money in the social security trust fund, that’s part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy,” she said. “My social security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald’s, assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it.”

“Such a nasty woman,” Mr. Trump interjected.

Clinton, however, promised she will not cut benefits: “I want to enhance benefits for low income workers and for women who have been disadvantaged by the current social security system.  

The debate ended with closing statements from both candidates, lasting one minute each.

Although this was so far the most civil debate of all three, very little said by the candidates was new. Both Trump and Clinton stuck to statements they had already made and talking points they had already backed.  

Wednesday night’s debate is thus unlikely to have a great impact on the presidential race, but due to the fact that Clinton is already ahead, this is a decent result for her campaign.  

Trump’s refusal to say he’ll honour the results of the election remains a faux pas in an already blundering campaign.