Nancy Pelosi says that Trump won't 'respect the election' if he loses in 2020

In a New York Times interview, the Speaker of the House said the President would 'poison the public mind' and 'challenge each of the races'

Democrats picked up a sweeping 40 seats in the 2018 midterms, to which Pelosi says, 'We had to win. We have to have the same approach'

Trump previously claimed during the 2016 presidential election that 'millions of people' illegally voted for Democrats

Nancy Pelosi is already anticipating that Trump will not be gracious in defeat if he loses the 2020 presidential election by a slim margin.

Speaking to the New York Times, the Speaker of the House says that the Democrats need to win by a landslide so Trump will step down from the presidency without challenging the results.

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'If we win by four seats, by a thousand votes each, he's not going to respect the election,' Pelosi says. 'We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that.'

It would not be unlike Trump, who - even in victory - claimed during the 2016 presidential election that 'millions of people' illegally voted for opponent Hillary Clinton.

Nancy Pelosi says that Trump won't 'respect the election' if he loses by a small margin in 2020

'He would poison the public mind. He would challenge each of the races; he would say ''you can't seat these people,''' she added.

Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Trump preemptively warned against 'illegal voting.'

Democrats picked up a sweeping 40 seats in the 2018 midterms - the largest Democratic House gain since 1974 - to which Pelosi said, 'We had to win.'

'Imagine if we hadn't won - oh, don't even imagine. So, as we go forward, we have to have the same approach.'

The House Speaker offered suggestions on how the Democrats can secure the presidency: 'Own the center left, own the mainstream.

'Our passions were for health care, bigger paychecks, cleaner government - a simple message.

'We did not engage in some of the other exuberances that exist in our party,' she said, referring to some of the 22 Democratic candidates with leftist ideology of Medicare for all, the Green New Deal and impeaching Trump.

Trump claimed during the 2016 presidential election that 'millions of people' voted illegally for Democrats because he had lost the popular vote

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Pelosi has suggested that that the best way to get rid of Trump is through 2020 - not necessarily impeachment.

However just this week, Pelosi declared that Trump 'demonstrated on a daily basis his obstruction of justice.'

The Speaker has insisted the door is neither open nor closed to impeachment, which would be unlikely to remove Trump from office.

Presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren and Beto O'Rourke are among those calling for impeachment proceedings to begin.

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And just Friday, Senator Kamala Harris called on the the Department of Justice's inspector general to probe whether President Trump urged Attorney General William Barr to investigate his opponents.