Trump’s allies insist he respects democracy Hours after the GOP nominee refused to say he'll accept losing, his campaign manager says, 'You can count on him for a peaceful transition of power.'

Donald Trump’s allies are furiously trying to neutralize his nuclear statement that he may not accept the outcome of the presidential election, saying he simply wants to make sure there’s no blatant fraud, while claiming Hillary Clinton is the one undermining basic democratic principles.

Drowning in headlines highlighting — and editorial boards rebuking — Trump’s unprecedented refusal and reversal to say he will abide by political norms, his campaign all but ignored the menacing admission.


“Donald Trump clearly won the debate,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway declared in an interview with “Fox and Friends.” “With respect to the rigged system and the certification of results, he basically is saying that until he knows — you can lay out any hypothetical — until he knows the results, they’re certified and verified, he’s not going to completely concede an unknown.”

Conway, who just Wednesday morning said she didn’t believe there would be widespread voter fraud, further stoked the notion that the election is rigged against her candidate by pointing to media coverage and suggested it’s Clinton who has contempt for America’s democracy.

“If you just turn on a TV or read the print every day, you know the guy can’t get a fair shake,” she told Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day. “But all that aside, if you wanna talk about who has disrupted and disrespected the underlying principles of American democracy, let's ask the lady who was secretary of state, where they were using it as a concierge for foreign donations. Let’s ask the lady who is allowing collusion between the Department of Justice, the FBI and the State Department.”

Trump set off alarm bells with both Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday night when he reversed his prior presidential debate pledge to “absolutely support” his opponent if she wins. Under repeated questioning from moderator Chris Wallace about whether he would “absolutely accept the result of the election,” Trump cryptically said, “I will look at it at the time,” adding, “I'll keep you in suspense, OK?”

In a series of morning interviews on Thursday, Conway was on cleanup duty. The longtime GOP pollster insisted Trump holds America’s democracy in esteem and repeatedly likened him to Al Gore, who lost a famously close election to George W. Bush that came down to Florida and went to the Supreme Court.

“He respects the principles of democracy. It’s just that he can’t say what’s going to happen if the election is very tight, if it’s just a few votes here and there, as was the case in 2000, George, if one state like Florida is less than 600 votes, as was the case then,” she told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “We just don’t know what will happen.”

Polling, however, does shed light on what will occur. And, trailing Clinton nationally and, based on a RealClearPolitics average of state surveys in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, Trump is no Gore.

Nevertheless, North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers praised Trump for responding to Wallace “like a businessman that was going to have a contract” instead of “like a slick politician.” But she suggested on CNN that the brouhaha is overblown.

“Look, I think a lot more is being of made of this than really needs to be,” she said. “He simply said I’m not going to say anything until the time.”

Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser to Trump, told Fox News the GOP nominee said what he believed Wednesday night. “That's his position. That’s what he firmly believes,” Miller said. “Think back to 2000. You don't have candidates go and concede an election before we even go and start voting.”

Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, said he was “shocked” by Trump’s rhetoric but dismissed the relevance of whether Trump will concede if he loses on Election Day.

“Now, whether or not he concedes is probably irrelevant. The question is, is the mandate clear on the 8th of November?” Kaine said on CNN. “Donald is still gonna whine if he loses, but if the mandate is clear, I don’t think many people will follow him.”

Conway pushed back on any notion that there would be a revolt if Trump loses, telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that absent fraud, irregularities and malfeasance, “you can count on him for a peaceful transition of power.”

But she argued there's an “absolute, incontrovertible fact that he faces a deluge of unfairness and an avalanche of negative press coverage and the system being rigged against him every single day.”

“We’re not going to whine about it, but I think people should at least admit it,” she said.

Conway also appeared incredulous that so many of the headlines focused on the mystery of what Trump will do Nov. 8 instead of what she maintained was a victory in Las Vegas.

“Why is it the headline? I mean, let’s be fair to that 90-minute debate and what was discussed by both candidates,” Conway said. “The idea that the topics last night were Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, entitlements, economy, fitness for president, and you’re right, in predictable lemming-like fashion, everybody’s gonna glom on to one single thing during that entire debate and then sanctimoniously claim it’s because it was so shocking and so unprecedented. Really? As opposed to what?”