"He's talking about a system where people feel like insiders like Hillary Clinton get all the benefits on top of the fact many in the media collude with them,” Conway said. | Getty Conway says she'll advise Trump to accept election results

After initially deflecting the question, Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that ”absent evidence of widespread abuse and irregularities" she will urge Trump to accept the results of the election.

Trump “will accept the results of the election because he's going to win the election,” Conway initially said during a CNN interview, shortly after Trump refused to commit to accepting the results during Wednesday's presidential debate. When asked a second time by reporter Dana Bash whether Trump will accept the election results, Conway answered with her own question: “Do you remember 2000 when Al Gore contested the election?” she asked Bash.


“That's an extraordinary experience,” Bash said.

“We have extraordinary experiences. He was talking about a corrupt system. Many Americans agree with that. He's talking about a system where people feel like insiders like Hillary Clinton get all the benefits on top of the fact many in the media collude with them,” Conway said.

Bash pushed her again: “What you just said to me is that he will accept. What you're telling me is that on election night if he is sort of waffling, you as his campaign manager will say, 'Mr. Trump, no matter what it is, this is what is going to happen and you're going to accept these results.'”

“Absent evidence of widespread abuse and irregularities, yes. But I also think he will be president,” Conway said before walking away from the interview.

In a separate interview on MSNBC, Conway cast Trump's warnings about a rigged election as simply an extension of his broader campaign narrative.

“This man has been talking from Day 1 of his candidacy, a year and a half, about the rigged, corrupt system all the way around,” Conway said. Only someone as far outside of the system as Trump “can legitimately say they are going to take a better look at the system and turn it upside down,” Conway continued.

Sarah Wheaton contributed to this report.