President
Barack Obama has said Republican Donald Trump’s insistence that he might not
accept the election result is “dangerous”.
Speaking
at a campaign rally in Miami for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the
president said Mr Trump’s comments undermined American democracy.
Mr
Trump refused in a televised debate to say he would accept the outcome of the
election on 8 November.
He
later said he would accept a “clear” result but left a challenge open.
Speaking
in Ohio on Thursday, Mr Trump said, with a grin: “I would like to promise and
pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the
United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and
historic presidential election – if I win.”
In
the same speech, he said he would accept a clear election result but reserved
the right to file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable one.
Hours
later, the president said that sowing the seeds of doubt in people’s minds
about the legitimacy of US elections provided a boost to the country’s enemies.
“You’re
doing the work of our adversaries for them, because our democracy depends on
people knowing that their vote matters,” said Mr Obama.
Mr
Trump has been heavily criticised by many in his own party by suggesting he
might not accept the election result.
For
days, he has claimed the election is rigged against him, due to media bias and
voter fraud.
During
Wednesday night’s debate with Mrs Clinton, when moderator Chris Wallace asked
Mr Trump if he would accept losing to her, the Republican nominee said he would
“keep you in suspense”.
Mr
Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, later insisted that the candidate
had meant he would not concede until the “results are actually known”.
Republican
Senator John McCain, who lost to Mr Obama eight years ago, said: “A concession
isn’t just an exercise in graciousness. It is an act of respect for the will of
the American people, a respect that is every American leader’s first
responsibility.”
First
Lady Michelle Obama also joined the attack on Thursday, saying “you do not keep
American democracy in suspense”.
With
the Clinton camp – Kim Ghattas, BBC News
Hillary
Clinton walked on to her campaign plane to the cheering and clapping of her
aides.
She
told reporters she was relieved and grateful and joked there would be “no more
naps”- a reference to Trump’s repeated description of her prep days off the
campaign trail as naps.
Mrs
Clinton’s stand-in for Mr Trump during the mock debates was one of her close
aides, Philippe Reines, who took the role so seriously that he wore Trump
cufflinks, shoe lifts and the same red tie as Mr Trump. After the debate, Mrs
Clinton and Mr Reines embraced and he called her a “badass hombre”.
Clinton
aides said she would continue to highlight Mr Trump’s refusal to pledge he
would accept the results of the election. But would it be a real crisis on
election day? Not if the result was a decisive win, they seemed to quietly
indicate.
If
Mrs Clinton and her team felt that she had closed the deal on stage, they kept
their confidence in check. But the mood on the plane was certainly relaxed.
At
the Ohio rally, Mr Trump also reiterated a claim he made during the debate,
that Mrs Clinton and President Obama were responsible for inciting violence at
a Chicago rally earlier this year.
The
crowd erupted into cheers of: “Lock her up!”
During
the debate, he called Mrs Clinton a “nasty woman”.
Mr
Trump has trailed Mrs Clinton in the polls after facing damaging fallout over a
video that emerged of him making obscene remarks about groping women.
When
asked to address the allegations made against him by several women in the wake
of the video, Mr Trump said the claims had been “largely debunked”.
Mr
Trump’s comments come after a 10th woman came forward to accuse him of sexual
assault on Thursday at a news conference.
Karena
Virginia said Mr Trump allegedly touched her breast at the US Open in 1998 and
made offensive comments about her to a group of men.
The
two candidates are scheduled to appear at a charity dinner on Thursday night in
New York.
Polls
suggest Mrs Clinton is ahead nationally and in key battleground states.
Source: BBC
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