.@POTUS to @realDonaldTrump: “Stop whining” about “rigged election” and go try to win votes https://t.co/TjNqB0WR08 https://t.co/vS3OU6RM4F
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 18, 2016
During a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the White House, President Barack Obama addressed Donald Trump’s claims of a rigged election with a harsh rebuke. Specifically, the outgoing commander-in-chief warned the Republican nominee, whose campaign has been plagued with several allegations of sexual misconduct, to “stop whining” and focus on trying to appeal to voters and garner enough votes to legitimately defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
“The larger point that I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections. In part because they’re so decentralized, and the numbers of votes involved,” Obama told the press gathered at the White House Rose Garden. “There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time. And so I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.”
“And if he got the most votes,” Obama added, “it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government.”
Despite the president’s last-minute inclusion of Clinton in his remarks, it was clear that his more critical comments were reserved for Trump. When asked initially about the New York real estate mogul’s recent behavior, Obama suggested Trump was “whining before the game’s even over,” which didn’t “really show the kind of leadership and toughness that you’d want out of a president.”
Obama on Trump’s rigged election claim: “He started whining before the game’s even over” https://t.co/G3h7XM4pBW https://t.co/3rm8IkuNWX
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 18, 2016
