Mike Pence: Trump and I reserve right to challenge "questionable" election results
After days of telling reporters that the GOP ticket would respect the results of the Nov. 8 election, Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence added a caveat: he and Donald Trump would “reserve the right” to legally challenge “questionable” outcome.
“The American people deserve a fair and honest election, and Donald Trump and I intend to see that they get it,” Pence said at a rally in Reno, Nevada Thursday.
“As Donald Trump said earlier today in Ohio, of course we will accept a clear election result,” he went on. “But we also reserve the right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of questionable results.”
In another rally that same day -- this time in Albuquerque, New Mexico -- Pence repeated the line, adding that they intend to ensure that “justice has been done.”
The right to challenge the results, the Indiana governor said, has been “a tradition of other candidates in the past.”
When Pence continued with a lengthy exposition on how voter fraud was real (an unsubstantiated claim that CBS News has fact-checked before), the New Mexico crowd went wild, chanting out “Voter ID!”
Several days ago, however, Pence wasn’t quite so eager to fall in line with his running mate’s refusal to accept the election results.
In a Sunday interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Indiana Republican had this to say about Trump’s views: “We’ll respect the outcome of this election,” he said. “Look, let me be very clear. Donald Trump said in the first debate that we’ll respect the will of the American people in this election. The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American history. And, and elections get really tough.”
Trump, for his part, continued Thursday to stoke dissent at his Delaware, Ohio rally.
“I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters, and to all of the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election -- if I win,” Trump said.
Pointing to the 2000 presidential election and the battle between Al Gore and George W. Bush, he said, “in effect, I’m being asked to waive centuries of legal precedent designed to protect voters.”