8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016
FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
GOP braces for headache as Trump
says may not accept election results
By JOSH LEDERMAN
and JULIE PACE
Associated Press
Paul Aiken/Daily Camera
WASHINGTON — Don-
ald Trump launched into the
campaign’s closing stretch
with a shot across the bow to
American democratic tradi-
tion: He may reject the elec-
tion’s results if he loses. As
Democrats pounced, Republi-
cans braced for a fresh polit-
ical headache with less than
three weeks left until Election
Day.
Trump’s alarming rejoin-
der about accepting the
results — “I will tell you at
the time” — sent shockwaves
through the presidential cam-
paign, with Trump’s support-
ers struggling to explain his
remarks and fellow Republi-
cans seeking even more dis-
tance from their own nomi-
nee. The distraction deprived
Trump of the comeback
moment he sorely needed,
despite an otherwise mostly
measured and poised perfor-
mance in Wednesday’s third
and inal debate.
“I will keep you in sus-
pense,” Trump said omi-
nously when asked whether
he was committed to uphold-
ing America’s centuries-old
tradition of the election’s
loser conceding. He repeated
unfounded allegations of
impending, widespread voter
fraud.
The Republican National
Committee, whose chief mis-
sion is to get the GOP nom-
inee elected, was put in the
remarkable position of dis-
puting its own candidate,
with a spokesman saying the
party would “respect the will
of the people.” Even some of
Trump’s most ardent support-
ers felt it was a step over the
line. Sen. Bob Corker of Ten-
nessee said it was “imperative
that Donald Trump clearly
state” he’ll accept the results.
Trump running mate Mike
Pence and campaign manager
Kellyanne Conway, both of
whom had previously insisted
Trump would accept the elec-
tion’s results, were left trying
to explain that Trump would
contest the results only under
extraordinary circumstances
— assurances that seemed
at odds with Trump’s own
words.
“He just wants a fair shot,”
Conway said on ABC’s “Good
Morning America.” ‘’If you’re
Donald Trump, you don’t get a
fair shot these days.”
From calm to bitter
Trump’s
noncommittal
answer was the can’t-turn-
away moment of the debate,
which began calm and pol-
icy-focused, but devolved
into a bitter confrontation.
Trump called Clinton a “nasty
woman,” backed Supreme
Court justices who would
overturn the landmark Roe
vs. Wade abortion rights rul-
ing, and declined to back the
intelligence
community’s
assessment that Russia was
behind recent hacking. Clin-
ton described Trump as a
“puppet” of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sup-
porters Mary Claire, from left, Colette McDonald and
Karolee McLaughlin, with her dog Lakota, spar with pro-
testers during an appearance by Donald Trump Jr., a son
of presidential candidate Donald Trump, in Boulder, Colo.
Cheer up, Americans, say
Canadians — you’re great
By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer
AP Photo/John Locher
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is surrounded by members of his family
after the third presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas, Wednesday.
Mark Ralston/Pool via AP
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton debates
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the
third presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas, Wednesday.
All that was overshadowed
by Trump’s stunner about
the election’s results, which
marked the culmination of
weeks of escalating assertions
that “this election is rigged”
against him and that Clin-
ton was trying “to steal it.”
Trump’s campaign — and
even his daughter — had tried
to soften his claim by insist-
ing he was referring to unfair
media treatment, leading
Trump to contradict them by
saying that no, he was refer-
ring to actual fraud.
There is no evidence of
widespread voter fraud. U.S.
elections are run by local
elected oficials — Repub-
licans, in many of the most
competitive states — and
many of those oficials
have denied and denounced
Trump’s charges.
But Trump’s campaign
pointed to Al Gore and George
W. Bush in 2000 as Exhibit A
for why it would be prema-
ture for Trump to say he’d
acquiesce on Nov. 8. Yet that
election, which played out
for weeks until the Supreme
Court weighed in, didn’t cen-
ter on allegations of fraud, but
on proper vote-counting after
an extremely close outcome
in the pivotal state of Florida
led to a mandatory recount.
“Donald is still going to
whine if he loses, but if the
mandate is clear, I don’t think
many people will follow
him,” Clinton running mate
Tim Kaine predicted Thurs-
day on CNN.
Republicans were once
again straining to prevent
Trump’s rebelliousness from
damaging the party’s other
candidates. Republicans are
increasingly concerned that
Trump is squandering their
chances for holding onto
the Senate and that the GOP
could suffer heavy losses in
the House.
The silence emanating
from the Republican estab-
lishment said it all: House
Speaker Paul Ryan’s ofice
didn’t respond to requests
for comment about Trump’s
threat, while Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell’s
ofice said he “typically only
comments on the Senate and
not the presidential race.”
Democrat response
Yet Democrats wasted
no time before vowing to
force every GOP candidate
to answer for Trump’s com-
ments. In one of the most
competitive Senate races, in
New Hampshire, Democrat
Maggie Hassan said oppo-
nent Sen. Kelly Ayotte bore
responsibility for Trump’s
“reckless actions,” even
though Ayotte rescinded her
support after video emerged
of Trump’s sexually aggres-
sive comments about women.
“The voters are going to
decide this election, and Don-
ald Trump needs to accept the
outcome,” Ayotte said Thurs-
day, rebuking her party’s
nominee.
Refusing to accept the out-
come would thrust the U.S.
into uncharted territory. Free
Halloween Costume Contest
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and fair elections and peace-
ful handovers of power have
underpinned
America’s
democracy.
For election oficials,
there’s another serious con-
cern: that Trump’s loose,
unfounded talk about fraud
could lead to voter intimida-
tion. Trump has been encour-
aging his supporters to “mon-
itor” voting on Election Day,
particularly in urban areas
like Philadelphia with large
numbers of African-American
voters.
Trump is trailing Clin-
ton in nearly all battleground
states. Though his answer
on the election results won’t
likely alienate core support-
ers who have driven his cam-
paign, it was equally unlikely
to help draw in additional
voters whose support Trump
sorely needs.
In the debate, the candi-
dates clashed repeatedly over
their drastically different
visions, and on their personal
character. Trump offered fresh
denials of sexual assault accu-
sations by a string of women,
saying the women coming
forward “either want fame
or her campaign did it.” He
falsely said the women’s alle-
gations had been debunked.
Clinton said Trump “thinks
belittling women makes him
bigger. He goes after their
dignity, their self-worth.” She
avoided answering a ques-
tion about her husband’s
inidelities.
The candidates will have
at least one more run-in when
they sit just one seat apart
Thursday at the Alfred E.
Smith Memorial Foundation
Dinner, a white-tie gala in
which candidates, in contrast
to this year’s brutal race, are
expected to be light-hearted
and funny.
NEW YORK — Amer-
ica’s neighbors to the north
— so often the butt of their
jokes — are taking to social
media to keep spirits up in
the U.S. during this divisive
election season.
Using the hashtag #tel-
lamericaitsgreat, Canadi-
ans have swamped Twit-
ter with compliments about
American music, culture,
technology and even tail-
gating. The outpouring
of love triggered a reply
— #TellCanadaThanks.
It’s all an effort started
by the Toronto-based ad
agency The Garden Collec-
tive, which chose its hashtag
as a play on Republican pres-
idential candidate Donald J.
Trump’s campaign slogan,
“Make America great again.”
The irm’s video launching
the social media push has
gotten over 752,000 You-
Tube views and the hashtag
has been trending on Twitter
for several days.
“As their closest friends
and neighbors, we thought
it was important for us to do
something to cut through the
negativity and help remind
them that no matter how bad
things might seem, there are
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a lot of reasons to believe
that America is still pretty
great,” the agency said in a
statement.
Some of the things
Canadians say they admire
about America are its fed-
eral parks, its diversity, its
missions to Mars, jazz and
Tupac Shakur. One Cana-
dian from Halifax on Tues-
day complimented Amer-
icans for baseball, “The
Cather in the Rye” and irst
lady Michelle Obama.
Canadians, who have
long been mocked by their
southern neighbors for their
accents (“aboot”), their cre-
ation of Justin Bieber and
an apparent abundance of
moose, have enjoyed some
good press recently, largely
thanks to their telegenic
new prime minister, Justin
Trudeau.
Americans, meanwhile,
have been in the doldrums
as Trump and Hillary Clin-
ton face accusations of run-
ning a squalid campaign
for presidency, not to men-
tion several dispiriting Hol-
lywood breakups, including
the demise of Brangelina.
The land that gave the world
Ryan Gosling has proven as
seemingly warm and kind as
that sensitive actor in Amer-
ica’s time of need.
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