Trump: 'Too much is being made' about what I said in the debate

President Barack Obama said it’s not a joke, Hillary Clinton said it’s a threat to democracy, and first lady Michelle Obama said you don’t keep American democracy in suspense. But Donald Trump on Monday said it's being overblown.

Indeed, the Republican presidential nominee on Monday morning said too much is being made about his refusal to say during the final presidential debate that he would accept the outcome of the election.


“Yes, I think too much is being made,” Trump told Bo Thompson on WBT-AM’s “Charlotte’s Morning News.” “But, you know, everybody had me winning the third debate and the second debate handily, easily. And when I made that statement, I made it knowingly, because what’s happening is absolutely ridiculous.”

After initially telling debate moderator Chris Wallace he would look at the results in November before determining whether he would accept the outcome, preferring to leave the nation “in suspense,” Trump teased his critics at an Ohio rally the next day, Oct. 20, by pledging to respect the results — “if I win.”

He later clarified that he would “of course” accept the outcome but maintained that he reserves his right to challenge “a questionable result.”

“You have — first of all, you have a media that as you see has obviously been very unfair, which is, I guess, fine, but it’s not really appropriate,” he said Monday. “But you have a media that’s a very, very — you know, it’s really a pile-on, the likes of which nobody’s ever seen, because I’m going to protect the people, and the media are the exact opposite and they represent the, you know, opposite.”

Clinton on Monday continued to hammer Trump for publicly toying with the idea of refusing to concede if he loses. Speaking with radio host Sam Sylk, the Democratic nominee re-upped her line that Trump's response during the debate was "horrifying."

"We can be disagreeable with each other on issues without threatening our democracy. And he has threatened our democracy by saying that he will only accept the results of the election if he wins," she said. "That is horrifying. And so I’m hoping that everybody, no matter what the issue is you care about, turns out and votes and repudiates that kind of attack on our fundamental institutions."