Donald Trump said a lot pretty nutty things on stage at the third Presidential debate on Wednesday night.
He said that no one in the universe respects women more than he does… he then referred to Hillary Clinton as a “nasty woman”… he claimed that allegations of sexual assault against him have been “largely debunked” (by himself, we guess).
He also used the term “bad hombres” to describe criminal immigrants and may have thrown around the word “BIGLY” again.
It was quite the (God awful) performance.
But one point Trump made during the debate stands out among the rest.
Having stoked his base over the past couple weeks with talk of a “rigged election,” Trump was told by moderator Chris Wallace that both his daughter and his running mate have said in recent days that they would absolutely respect the results of the vote on November 8.
Would Trump say the same?
Would he pledge a peaceful transition of power over to Hillary Clinton if he were to lose?
No. Incredibly, stunningly, disgustingly… Trump said no.
“I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking into anything right now,” he told Wallace.
The controversial candidate then offered three supposed reasons why he would not necessarily concede on election night:
FIRST, the “dishonest” media, citing how they have spread purported lies about women he has sexually harassed or assault.
SECOND, concerns about voter fraud, randomly saying “if you look at your voter rolls, you will see millions of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be registered to vote.
THIRD, his belief that Clinton isn’t even a legitimate candidate.
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“She shouldn’t be allowed to run,” Trump said of her opponent, who has been cleared by the FBI of any criminal activity when it came to her personal email service.
“She’s guilty of a very, very serious crime. She should not be allowed to run, and just in that respect I say it’s rigged. She never should have been allowed to run for the presidency based on what she did with emails and so many other things.”
Even Wallace (who works for Fox News, it should be noted) was blown away by this response.
“There is a tradition in this country – in fact, one of the prides of this country is the peaceful transition of power,” he replied, adding:
“No matter how hard-fought the campaign, at the end, the loser concedes to the winner … and the country comes together. Are you saying you’re not prepared to adhere to that principle?”
“What I am saying,” Trump responded thinking he’s the star of some kind of TV show, “is I’ll tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.”
Clinton then jumped in with what everyone else was thinking:
“That’s horrifying,” she said.
The Democratic nominee then listed all the other times Trump has cried about something being “rigged,” painting him as a spoiler whiner.
“When he lost the Iowa Caucus and the Wisconsin primary, he said the Republican primary was rigged against him,” he outlined.
“There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years ago and he started tweeting that the Emmy’s were rigged.”
It’s true:
What did Trump have to say in response to these allegations?
“I shoulda win” the Emmy.
While some in the audience laughed (at Trump, we really hope, not with Trump) Clinton continued:
“This is a mindset. This is how Donald thinks and it’s funny but it is also really troubling.”
Could any sentence better sum up Trump’s campaign and this election in general?
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