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John Podesta, the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton, refused twice to say whether the US presidential election was a "free and fair" contest. In a bizarre interview, Mr Podesta deflected the question each time onto complaining about Russia rigging the system. When pressed on whether he accepted that Mrs Clinton lost in a fair and square, he instead blamed it all on Russian hacking.

NBC; GETTY John Podesta refused to clarify whether the election was fair or not

During his appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mr Podesta told the host: “Well, look, I think the Russians clearly intervened in the election. "I think that now we know that the CIA, the director of national intelligence, the FBI, all agree on that the Russians intervened to help Trump." He cited his own emails, which he alleged were hacked by the Russian government, and added that Mrs Clinton won almost 3 million more votes than her rival nationwide. However, the host, Chuck Todd, pointed out that Mr Podesta "didn't answer the question".

I think it was distorted by the Russian intervention, let’s put it that way. John Podesta

Mr Podesta again refused to say the election result was fair, adding: "I think it was distorted by Russian intervention, let’s put it that way. "A foreign adversary directly intervened into our democratic institution, and tried to tilt the election to Donald Trump." Critics labelled Mr Podesta stubborn and a "sore loser" who was in fact helping the Russians. One critic, former Defence Secretary Robert Gates, said the hacking was intended to show American elections as "corrupt, incompetent, rigged, and therefore no more honest than anybody else’s in the world including theirs." He said Mr Podesta railing against the result in fact aided this narrative. Even Democrat allies condemned Mr Podesta's assertions as ridiculous, saying Mrs Clinton loss was her own fault and no-one else's.

NBC Mr Podesta refused to accept the result was fair and honest

GETTY Mrs Clinton won the popular vote by more than 3 million votes

Mr Trump’s soon-to-be chief of staff Reince Priebus said: "She blew it in Benghazi, she blew it with Russia, she blew it as secretary of state, she ignored the entire Midwest, and people didn’t like the product — that’s why Hillary Clinton lost." Another advisor to the Republican winner, Newt Gingrich, added: "Podesta is desperately trying to find somebody else to say, ‘It wasn’t my fault that I was a stupid campaign manager, somebody else did it to us. It’s beyond my control'." In a list-ditch attempt to subvert the will of the US public, Mr Podesta also pleaded with the CIA and FBI to brief the members of the Electoral College before they offically make Donald Trump president later today.

GETTY Podesta refused to say on Sunday that the 2016 presidential election was free and fair

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