US presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he will accept the results of the upcoming November 5 election, but only under certain conditions. He made the comments during the first presidential debate with Joe Biden, hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday.
During the event, moderator Dana Bash asked Trump three times if he would accept the outcome of the vote. The 78-year-old dodged the question twice, but eventually replied that “if it’s a fair and legal, and good election, absolutely.”
Trump never publicly conceded defeat to Biden in the 2020 election. He claimed that the vote had been “stolen” from him and challenged its results in court, but without success.
“I would have much rather accepted these [results], but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous,” Trump said on Thursday, referring to the 2020 election.
“It would be much easier for me to do that than running again. I wasn’t really going to run until I saw the horrible job he did. He’s destroying the country,” the presumptive Republican nominee said of Biden.
Trump claimed he “would be very happy to be someplace else – in a nice location,” instead of having to face indictments and other “opponent stuff” during the campaign.
“It’s the only way he [Biden] thinks he can win, but unfortunately it’s driven up my numbers,” Trump added, referring to polls which show him leading Biden.
A New York Times/Siena College survey released on Wednesday suggested that Trump is polling at 48%, with Biden lagging 4% behind.
“Let us see what your numbers are when the election is over,” Biden replied, branding his opponent a “whiner” over his reaction to the outcome of the 2020 vote.
“When you lost the first time you… appealed and appealed to courts all across the country. Not one single court in America said any of your claims had any merit,” the US president recalled.
As for the 2024 vote, Biden told Trump: “I tell you what – I doubt whether you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner. The idea if you lose again, you accepting anything... you can’t stand the loss. Something snapped in you when you lost the last time.”
According to CNN Flash Poll, 67% of registered voters who watched the debate thought Trump outperformed Biden during their first face-off.