Asked If He’ll Respect Midterm Results “Whatever Happens,” Trump Says, “If They’re Honest Elections”

Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday before flying to Texas, President Donald Trump was asked about the midterm elections: “And you’ll respect the results, whatever happens?” He answered: “I will — if they’re honest elections.”

Liberal journalist Aaron Rupar posted the clip and added, “(That’s a no!)”

Conservative commentator Eric Daugherty posted it as a win. “President Trump drops this anti-election fraud response and the left hates it,” he wrote, and added, “A fake Dan Sullivan on the ballot in Alaska. Thousands of likely noncitizen ballots in California. The Trump admin is watching the midterms LIKE A HAWK.”

Trump was also asked how he would handle Democrats if they win the House. He replied, “You have a strong veto, and you end up working on deals.”

The “noncitizen ballots” Daugherty mentions are the subject of the Justice Department’s California lawsuit. The 9th Circuit panel declined on Monday to order the state to set aside about 20,000 ballots. It said “the United States’ claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the DOJ’s demands “unprecedented, baseless, lawless territory” when the suit was filed. Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the situation “an emergency of the DOJ’s creation.”

[NOTE: When Trump was asked in February by NBC News’ Tom Llamas if he would trust the midterm results, Trump said: “I will, if the elections are honest.” Pressed on what happens otherwise, he said “something else has to happen.”]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) answered Trump’s push to “take over the voting” that month, by saying: “What Donald Trump wants to do is try and nationalize the election – translation: steal it.” He added, “And we’re not going to let it happen.”