Obama says Trump's rigged election talk is 'not a joking matter'

President Barack Obama on Thursday offered a searing condemnation of Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the results of the November election, declaring that the Republican nominee’s talk warning of a rigged contest is “not a joking matter.”

“This is more than just the usual standard lie,” Obama said forcefully, speaking at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Miami. “Because when you suggest rigging or fraud without a shred of evidence, when last night, at the debate, Trump becomes the first major party nominee in American history to suggest that he will not concede despite losing the vote and then says today that he will accept the results if he wins — that is not a joking matter.”


“I want everybody to pay attention here. That is dangerous,” Obama continued, as supporters in the crowd cried out. “Because when you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people's minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. Then you’re doing the work of our adversaries for them. Because our democracy depends on people knowing that their vote matters, that those who occupy the seats of power were chosen by the people.”

Since he began campaigning for Clinton this summer, Obama has become visibly more incensed by Trump’s candidacy, describing him as totally unfit to succeed him in the Oval Office in increasingly loud terms. Thursday was no exception, as Obama rounded on Trump’s comments at the third presidential debate to portray him as openly deceptive and insulting to American institutions.

Lawmakers in both parties have rebuked Trump for declining, when asked directly at Wednesday night’s debate in Las Vegas, to say that he will concede if he loses the election on Nov. 8. Among those dismayed by the remark was Obama’s one-time general election opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was the Republican standard-bearer in 2008.

Obama also tied Trump’s refusal to commit to respecting the election’s outcome to the unfounded theories about election rigging that Trump is propagating on the campaign trail, warning of widespread voter fraud and a conspiracy between the news media and Democrats. Noting that voter fraud is exceedingly rare and that both Democrats and Republicans oversee polling places, Obama dismissed the Republican nominee as a whiner lacking basic knowledge of the electoral process.

“This is just about him worried that he’s losing,” Obama said, a reference to Clinton’s considerable lead in the polls. “Which means he really doesn't have what it takes to hold this job.”

Obama, whose legacy largely depends on Clinton’s election, has proven to be one of her most effective surrogates, hitting Trump while offering a full-throated endorsement of the former secretary of state. On Thursday, Obama also lent his campaign chops to a Florida Democrat down the ballot, Rep. Patrick Murphy, who is challenging Republican Marco Rubio for his seat in the Senate.

Rubio is currently favored to win reelection. But echoing a speech he gave in Ohio last week placing the blame on the GOP for Trump’s rise, Obama did his best to knock the Florida senator on Thursday as a hypocrite and an enabler for endorsing his party’s increasingly toxic nominee.

Noting that Rubio had once called Trump a “con artist” and said he could not be trusted with the nuclear codes, Obama portrayed him as an insincere opportunist willing to stand by Trump to advance his career.

“Why is he supporting Donald Trump?” Obama asked. “Look, I know a lot of Republicans, voters, just ordinary folks, your neighbors, your friends, you know, most of them don't think the way Trump does, and there are legitimate differences between the parties. But there has to be a point where you stand for something more than just party, or more than just your own career.”

Rubio has not abandoned Trump’s candidacy, unlike some of his peers in the Senate, but he called on Trump to stop promoting his election rigging theory before Trump refused to commit to respecting its outcome.

“This election’s not being rigged,” Rubio said Monday in a debate with Murphy. Of Trump, he added: “He should stop saying that.”

