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Donald Trump will only concede defeat if he thinks the election result is ‘legit and fair’, son says

The Republican candidate has repeatedly refused to state outright that he will accept the results of the election, and has suggested that it is being rigged

Andrew Griffin
Tuesday 08 November 2016 21:30 GMT
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump takes the stage during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena November 7, 2016 in Raleigh, North Carolina
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump takes the stage during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena November 7, 2016 in Raleigh, North Carolina (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Donald Trump will concede defeat if he loses only if he thinks the election was “legit and fair”, his son has said.

The Republican presidential candidate has repeatedly refused to confirm that he will accept the results of the election, if he doesn’t win. That has led to fears that he will continue to challenge it – presumably claiming that the process was unfair or rigged, as he has suggested in the past.

Now Mr Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, has said that his father might only accept if he believes the election to be fairly run.

He told MSNBC: "All we've wanted is a fair fight.

"If he loses and it's legit and fair, and there's not obvious stuff out there – without question, yes."

If Mr Trump loses and refuses to concede it could be the beginning of weeks of legal arguments, which could go as high up as the Supreme Court.

There have already been suggestions that Mr Trump will oppose the results of the election, if they go against him. As election day began his campaign filed a lawsuit asking for thousands of votes to be thrown out.

The suit claimed that polling places had been left open two hours longer than they should have been. Those people who tried to cast their ballot – who had turned up to early voting but were kept from doing so in normal time because of the queues – did so after the normal close because of the long queues.

The suit asked that the votes cast after the poll time had closed should be thrown out. But a judge dismissed the case, arguing that it was disturbing and shouldn’t be allowed.

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