Washington: Donald Trump is setting up “rigged election” excuses only because the Republican presidential nominee is aware that he will lose the upcoming general elections, Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine has claimed.
“Donald Trump has been going around the country saying that the whole thing is rigged against him, rigged. ‘It’s rigged against me.’ He knows he’s losing, and he’s kind of trying to set up an excuse,” Kaine said at an election rally in North Carolina.
“It can’t be his fault if he loses the election. He wouldn’t be able to admit that he ran a divisive campaign that was out of touch with the American values. So it’s got to be somebody else’s fault. So he’s been saying over and over again, ‘rigged election.’ And he was challenged. ‘Will you accept the results of this election?’ And he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t accept it,” Kaine, 58, said.
He said Americans were fortunate to have peaceful transition of power as a basic pillar of the US democracy.
“And Donald Trump doesn’t accept it. Can you imagine that? Donald Trump doesn’t accept it,” he said.
Kaine alleged that Trump ran his whole campaign insulting one group after the other from Mexican Americans, Muslims, women, African-Americans, John McCain, generals and a disabled reporter among others.
“It’s like when he ran out of groups to insult, what more could he I know what I’ll do. I will insult our democratic tradition and say that we cannot run a fair election in this country. And he wants to be commander-in-chief. This was amazing,” he said.
Kaine said Trump has to accept the results of the elections no matter whether he wins or loses.
“You’ve got to accept the results, win or lose. You ve got to accept them. That’s the pledge. That’s what every candidate does in every presidential election in this country. And you can’t go around saying you’ll only accept the results if you win,” he said.
Kaine said another “pretty interesting” thing Trump did last night was showing unwillingness to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin who is trying to “destabilise” and “influence” American elections.
“Can you imagine this? He won’t defend our traditions, but he’s trying to come to the defense of Vladimir Putin,” he said.
Kaine alleged that it was clear that Russia under the direction of Putin was engaging in cyber activity to influence the American election.
“Donald Trump stood up in July and encouraged that to happen. And Russia is doing it with Vladimir Putin directing it. And, yet, for some reason, Donald is taking the stance, ‘We have no way of knowing that. There’s no evidence for that,” he said.
Kaine alleged that despite being informed by the top intelligence officials about what was going on in the country, Trump still wants to stand up and be Putin’s lawyer on the stage of a presidential debate when he himself will not even defend American democratic traditions.
PTI
