Republican senators call Trump out for his refusal to say if he will accept election results

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 20 October 2016

Republican senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have never been fans of Donald Trump, and both were quick to jump on his comments Wednesday night about a possible "rigged" election.

On Twitter, Flake called Trump's refusal to say if he will accept the results on Nov. 8 "beyond the pale," and Graham said he did a "great disservice" to the Republican Party and the United States by "continuing to suggest the outcome of this election is out of his hands and 'rigged' against him." If Trump loses on Nov. 8, Graham continued, "it will not be because the system is 'rigged' but because he failed as a candidate."

One of Trump's most ardent supporters in the Senate, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, tread lightly around his comments, saying in the spin room after the debate that "it would be wrong for a candidate to contest an election for light and transient reasons."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.