by Andrew Kugle • Washington Free Beacon
For weeks, liberals railed against then candidate Donald Trump for refusing to say he would accept the results of the presidential election.
Trump asserted multiple times throughout the campaign that the election could be rigged against him and he could lose because of voter fraud. At a campaign rally in October, Trump said he would accept the election results but reserved his right to challenge the outcome if there was reason to do so.
“I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result,” Trump said.
In the third presidential debate, Trump said he would keep people in suspense when asked if he would accept the results of the election. This answer drew an immediate rebuke from his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
“That is not the way our democracy works,” Clinton said. “We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them.”
Clinton repeatedly called Trump on the campaign trail a “threat to democracy.”
Other Democratic leaders agreed with Clinton. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) called Tump’s claims of a rigged election “irresponsible” and “beyond the pale.” President Obama said that it was “unprecedented” for any presidential candidate to try to discredit the election results.
After Trump’s victory, however, Democrats have changed their tune. Green Party candidate Jill Stein has filed for a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias announced that the Clinton campaign would join the recount in Wisconsin. In his statement, Elias explained that the campaign’s reason for joining the recount was to ensure that the election has no interference from outside groups.