Former President Donald Trump refused to unconditionally accept the results of the upcoming 2024 presidential election in an interview Wednesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,” Trump said in the interview. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”
Trump also repeated false claims that he won the state of Wisconsin during the 2020 election. “If you go back and look at all of the things that had been found out, it showed that I won the election in Wisconsin,” Trump told the Journal Sentinel. “It also showed I won the election in other locations.”
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin in 2020, coming out ahead by about 21,000 votes – a victory of about 0.6 percentage points.
Trump has repeatedly claimed the 2020 election was rigged or “stolen,” despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Special counsel Jack Smith indicted the former president last year, alleging Trump broke several laws in his attempts to overturn the election. Trump has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
Throughout his political career, Trump has regularly refused to accept the results of an election or commit to conceding defeat. After finishing second in the Iowa caucuses in 2016, Trump accused Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of fraud and called for a new contest. Later, while facing Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump baselessly claimed the election he eventually won was “rigged” and repeatedly refused to say whether he would abide by the outcome. He has again avoided a commitment heading into the 2024 election.
