WASHINGTON (Reuters) – USA Senator Marco Rubioan ally of the Republican presidential candidate donald trumpwill not accept the results of the November 5 elections if they are “unfair”, he said on Sunday.
“Will you accept the results of the 2024 elections, no matter what, senator?” NBC News “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker asked Rubio, a Florida Republican, in an interview.
“No matter what? No,” Rubio responded. “If it’s an unfair election, I think it will be contested by either side.”
Trump and his allies are laying the groundwork to challenge a potential defeat in November, fueling doubts about the legitimacy of the election even as polls show the former president leading in battleground states, Reuters reported on Thursday.
In recent interviews, Trump has refused to commit to accepting the election results, intensifying a strategy he used during the 2020 election. Trump’s false claims that his 2020 defeat was the result of fraud have inspired his supporters to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Rubio, now in his third term in the Senate, is considered a potential candidate to be named Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
Earlier this month, two other potential running mates — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — refused to commit to accepting the election results.
Rubio said Democrats have “opposed every Republican victory since 2000,” even though those candidates have admitted their losses.
“If it’s unfair, we’ll do what the Democrats do,” Rubio said. “We are going to call on lawyers to go to court and point out the fact that states are not following their own election laws.”
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)
