Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested on Monday that he fears the general election “is going to be rigged”, an unprecedented assertion by a modern presidential candidate.
Mr. Trump’s claim, one he did not back up with any immediate evidence, would, if it became more than just an offhand comment, seem to threaten the tradition of peacefully contested elections and challenge the very essence of a fair democratic process.
“I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” the Republican nominee told a town hall crowd in Columbus, Ohio. He added he has been hearing “more and more” that the election may not be contested fairly, though he did not elaborate further.
Mr. Trump made the claim after first suggesting that the Democrats had fixed their primary system so Hillary Clinton could defeat Bernie Sanders. Mr. Trump has previously backed up that thought by pointing to hacked e-mails from the national party that appeared to indicate a preference for Ms. Clinton.
Still, the former Secretary of State received 3.7 million more votes than Mr. Sanders nationwide and had established a clear lead in delegates by March 1.
Conspiracy theories
The celebrity businessman, who has been known to dabble in conspiracy theories, including claims that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. and, more recently, that Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was an associate of President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, also claimed that the Republican nomination would have been stolen from him had he not won by significant margins.
Requests to Mr. Trump’s campaign for additional explanation were not returned.
The statement could be an effort by Trump to lay the groundwork of an excuse if he goes on to lose the general election. But if he were to be defeated in November and then publicly declare that the election results were bogus, his claim could yield unpredictable reactions from his supporters and fellow Republicans.
Sanders supporters
In recent weeks, in an effort to woo angry Sanders supporters to his campaign, Mr. Trump has made the claim that the Democrats’ process was also rigged. Monday night, Mr. Trump said Mr. Sanders “made a deal with the devil”, and said of Clinton: “She’s the devil.” The Clinton campaign declined to comment about Trump’s remarks.
The event in Ohio was Mr. Trump’s first campaign appearance since the onset of his tussle with the parents of a slain Army veteran, but he did not address the flap. He spoke for nearly an hour Monday in Columbus, but did not mention his criticism of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Muslims whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004.
The Khans spoke out against Mr. Trump and questioned his familiarity with the Constitution last week at the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Trump struck back by questioning whether Ghazala Khan had been allowed to speak. She said she is still too grief-stricken by her son’s death.
Mr. Trump criticised the family in an interview Sunday and again in a pair of tweets Monday morning. Asked on MSNBC on Monday whether Mr. Trump should apologise, Ghazala Khan said: “I don’t want to hear anything from him and I don’t want to say anything to him.”
