Donald Trump said on Friday that he would not necessarily accept the results of the presidential election in the event that Hillary Clinton defeated him, reversing his statement four days earlier that he would “absolutely” respect them.
After the first presidential debate on Monday, the Republican nominee told reporters “absolutely I would” honor the results of the election should he lose. In an interview with the New York Times on Friday, he backtracked: “We’re going to have to see. We’re going to see what happens. We’re going to have to see.”
Earlier that day at a rally in Detroit, Trump resurfaced fears of voter fraud and his unsubstantiated complaints of a “rigged” election. He told supporters that voter fraud is “a big, big problem in this country”, although research has found a few dozen potential incidents of in-person voter fraud in 14 years of US elections. He also urged them to “go and watch the polling places and make sure it is on the up and up”.
Trump’s campaign chief, Steve Bannon, was found earlier this year to have registered to vote at an empty house in Florida.
The Republican nominee also spoke at length with the Times about the marital infidelities of former president Bill Clinton, insisting: “Hillary was an enabler, and she attacked the women who Bill Clinton mistreated afterward. I think it’s a serious problem for them, and it’s something that I’m considering talking about more in the near future.”
Trump refused to speak about his affair with Marla Maples during his first marriage to Ivana Trump, which was aired widely in tabloids in the 1990s, as was his subsequent divorce and third marriage.
“I don’t talk about it,” Trump said. “I wasn’t president of the United States. I don’t talk about it. When you think of the fact that he was impeached, the country was in turmoil, turmoil, absolute turmoil. He lied with Monica Lewinsky and paid a massive penalty.”
The Republican candidate spent much of the week defending himself against charges of sexism, mostly by attacking Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe whose story – Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “an eating machine” – has dominated coverage of his campaign since the debate. On Friday, Trump used Twitter for a predawn rant about Machado, which Clinton called evidence that he was “temperamentally unfit” to lead.
Trump also claimed to have paid federal taxes last year but again refused to release tax returns that would prove it, citing an IRS audit. There are no rules barring people from releasing their tax returns during an audit.