Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has implored the current Donald Trump challenger, Joe Biden, to not concede defeat in the election, sparking accusations from the GOP that the party would “steal” the vote.
In a clip, released just as the Republican National Convention was about to kick off on Monday evening, Clinton argued that if Trump emerges victorious in the November presidential contest but with a small margin, Biden should refuse to acknowledge the Republican’s victory.
Instead, the former VP must brace himself for a dragged-out legal battle in which, Clinton believes, he would prevail in the end.
Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances, because I think this is going to drag out and eventually I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch, and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is
Clinton suggested that Trump would try to “mess up” the absentee balloting system, claiming that she was told that the GOP “had 40 lawyers challenging absentee mail-in voting” in a Michigan Republcan presidential primary, suggesting that it was a rehearsal for the November election.
To counter that, Democrats should mount a legal offensive of their own, Clinton argued.
We’ve gotta have a massive legal operation, we have to have poll workers…We have to have our own teams of people to counter the force of intimidation…
Clinton’s words have drawn swift pushback from the Trump campaign, which observed that by calling on Biden to refuse to accept his loss “under any circumstances,” Clinton implied that the Democrats are poised to “steal the election” to oust Trump from office.
Hillary Clinton says Democrats are going to try to steal the election:“We’ve got to have a massive legal operation, I know the Biden campaign is working on that… Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances” pic.twitter.com/SJ14vHPJyk
The Republican Party’s national spokesperson Elizabeth Harrington called on mainstream media to step up and grill Clinton, as well as “every single Democrat,” on whether they would accept the election result, the same way they have done with Trump.
John Podesta & Hillary Clinton are both telling Joe Biden to “not concede under any circumstances”I’m sure the media will frantically ask every single Democrat if they will accept the results of the 2020 electionThey’re literally telling us they won’tpic.twitter.com/kDisFpCIJy
“I’m sure the media will frantically ask every single Democrat if they will accept the results of the 2020 election,” she said. “They’re literally telling us they won’t.”
Trump supporters dug up Clinton’s own tweets from before the 2016 vote, in which she described questioning the outcome of presidential elections as a “threat to democracy.”
Hillary Clinton, 2016: Questioning results of presidential elections is “threatening our democracy”Hillary Clinton, 2020, preemptively questioning the results of presidential election: “Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances.” https://t.co/SuUGYZhBGupic.twitter.com/Q4uZ6lGkzA
Clinton’s claims that Trump would try to derail the mail-in voting system in order to sway the election in his favor mirror similar accusations by congressional Democrats, who have argued that Trump has sought to undermine the 2020 vote by withholding funding from the US Postal Service. The Democrat-led campaign saw 26 Republicans joining House Democrats in a vote for a bill on Saturday that would earmark $25 billion to support universal mail-in voting on election day. The bill, however, is likely to hit a stonewall in the Republican-majority Senate, with Trump himself squarely opposing the universal rollout of mail-in ballots, arguing it would make elections vulnerable to fraud.
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