President Trump plans to wait to see if he wins before deciding whether to challenge the results of November’s race, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday.
“The president has always said he will see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath,” Ms. McEnany told reporters during an afternoon White House press briefing.
The latest indication Mr. Trump may be unwilling to accept losing to Democratic challenger Joseph R. Biden came in response to repeated questions raised by reporters about a comment the president made earlier in the week about the race supposedly being fixed in favor of his rival.
“The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” Mr. Trump said Monday during a campaign event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Ms. McEnany was asked twice to clarify Mr. Trump’s remarks during the press briefing before telling reporters that any decision about challenging the results will occur afterward.
“The president wants to take a hard look at this and make sure that these are fair election results and not subject to fraud,” she answered, citing concerns about voting by mail.
Mr. Trump has recently rallied strongly against efforts to allow universal mail-in voting this election by repeatedly claiming without evidence it will lead to fraud.
He said Saturday that Americans “may never know” the results if universal mail-in voting is allowed, and Monday he made his remarks about it being “rigged” if Mr. Biden wins.
More recently, Mr. Trump claimed Tuesday a redo will be needed if millions of ballots are cast by mail as he fears.
“It’ll end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome. They’ll have to do it again, and nobody wants that,” Mr. Trump said. “And I don’t want that.”
While election experts have said Mr. Trump’s fears of fraud are unfounded, the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that the U.S. electoral process is under attack from abroad.
Russians are actively trying to “denigrate” the Biden campaign, while China and Iran want him to defeat Mr. Trump, his own administration stated recently.
Mr. Biden formally received the Democratic presidential nod to compete against Mr. Trump this fall during the second night of the party’s national convention Tuesday evening.
Sen. Kamala Harris, California Democrat, is set to receive the vice presidential nomination Wednesday night.
Proponents of universal mail-in voting argue it is needed because the ongoing coronavirus pandemic makes it dangerous for Americans to cast ballots as usual.
COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has infected more than 5.5 million people in the U.S. and killed over 172,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The current U.S. population is close to 330 million.
