Defeated presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Monday that she might challenge the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s election victory if it’s proven that Russia interfered to help him win.
The move seemingly opens the door to a moral challenge of the president’s legitimacy, if not a legal one.
‘I don’t know if there’s any legal constitutional way to do that. I think you can raise questions,’ Clinton told the ‘Fresh Air’ program on NPR.
Hillary Clinton told an NPR host on Monday that she’s not ruling out the possibility of publicly questioning the fairness of Donald Trump’s White House win
Clinton said during a 2016 debate that it would be ‘horrifying’ to refuse to accept the results of a presidential election after Trump hedged on the idea, but now she’s the one airing doubts
Host Terry Gross asked the Democrat if she would ‘completely rule out questioning the legitimacy of this election if we learn that the Russian interference in the election is even deeper than we know now?’
‘No. I would not,’ Clinton replied.
‘You’re not going to rule it out,’ Gross repeated for emphasis.
‘No. I wouldn’t rule it out,’ Clinton said.
But she added that there’s no constitutional ‘mechanism’ that could reopen the election.
Clinton critized Trump last year for being unwilling to say he would accept the outcome of the election no matter how it turned out.
Asked during the final presidential debate if he would accept second place, he responded: ‘I will look at it at the time.’
‘What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.’
In the final presidential debate, Trump wouldn’t say he could accept losing – an idea that put Clinton on the attack
Clinton seemed to resign herself to defeat on November 9, 2016, telling supporters that she was conceding the race
Clinton called that comment ‘horrifying’ and said that ‘this is how Donald thinks – and it’s funny, but it’s also really troubling. That is not the way our democracy works.’
‘We’ve been around 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections and we’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them,’ Clinton continued, ‘and that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election.’
Trump frequently said on the campaign trail that he suspected the election would be ‘rigged’ against him, and that he wanted to defeat Clinton by a sizable margin in order to remove any doubt about the outcome.
He announced in an Ohio rally the day after that final debate that he would ‘totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election – if I win.’
‘Of course I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result,’ Trump said.
‘I will follow and abide by all the rules and traditions of all of the many candidates who came before me, always.’
Clinton spokesman Glen Caplin said Monday in a statement that the former candidate ‘has said repeatedly the results of the election are over but we have to learn what happened.’
Clinton is currently on a book tour promoting ‘What Happened,’ her autopsy of the 2016 election and how she let the White House slip away.