WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will respect the results of the Nov. 3 midterm elections only if they are "honest," a conditional pledge made a week before voters decide control of Congress, according to USA Today.
"I will if they’re honest elections," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Oct. 27, when asked whether he would respect the results regardless of the outcome, before departing for a campaign trip to Texas. Asked how he would work with Democrats if Republicans lost control of the legislative branch, he pointed to his veto power. "We’ll figure a way. I have a strong veto. I hope that won’t be the case, but if it is, that’s happened before with many presidents," he said, adding that presidents in that position "end up working on deals."
The remarks come as polling continues to point to a possible Democratic wave, with Democrats widely favoured to win control of the House of Representatives and holding multiple viable paths to the Senate, USA Today reported. Republicans hold the smallest possible House majority, 218 seats in the 435-seat chamber, and Democrats need to gain four Senate seats while defending competitive races of their own, according to Reuters’ midterm guide. More than 33 million Americans have already cast early ballots, according to figures reported this week.
Trump has regularly accused Democrats of cheating to win elections, without presenting evidence, and alleged broad vulnerabilities in voting systems during a primetime address in July. On Monday he warned on social media that he was "watching closely" for voter fraud in Minnesota’s Senate race, backing Republican candidate Michele Tafoya and writing that "the only way she can lose is if they cheat." Minnesota Senator Tina Smith accused the president of "laying the groundwork" to steal an election, The Hill reported. Civil rights groups including the NAACP also criticised the conditional acceptance.
The administration has paired the rhetoric with legal action. Last week the Justice Department filed a lawsuit that could block Alaska’s certification of its U.S. Senate race if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan loses, alleging confusion because another candidate on the ballot shares his name, Dan J. Sullivan. Trump told reporters he directed the department to pursue the lawsuit, and Attorney General Todd Blanche defended it in a television interview on Sunday. The department has also pressed Washington state over a list of registrants it says may not be citizens; Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said his office was reviewing the list, that some entries relied on outdated information, and that the timing — about a week before the election — risked generating unfounded doubts about the vote.
On Monday, Zark News reported, Trump announced a $1 million reward for voter-fraud tips leading to arrest and conviction. Documented fraud cases in U.S. elections do occur, but election experts and court records show they are generally isolated and caught, and Trump’s claims of widespread fraud after the 2020 election were rejected in court.
What happens next depends first on Nov. 3 itself: whether the results are close enough, in the House, the Senate or individual races, for legal challenges to matter, and whether the president’s conditional language hardens into contests over certification in the days that follow. State officials, who run U.S. elections, say counting and certification will proceed under state law regardless of the rhetoric. Read the USA Today report at usatoday.com.
