Mike Pence: 'If the vote is fair, I'm confident we'll accept it'

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 20 October 2016

Just days after he said he would "absolutely" accept the results of the election, Mike Pence has added a caveat.

During Wednesday's final presidential debate, Donald Trump refused to say if on Nov. 8, should he lose, he will accept it. In the spin room, his running mate was asked by NBC News if Trump should have responded the way he did on Sunday's Meet the Press, when Pence said the ticket will "accept the will of the American people." Pence said "with all due respect, the media coverage in this presidential campaign has been so one-sided" and voter fraud is a "reality," so taking that into consideration, it makes sense for Trump to take a "wait and see approach."

"I have no doubt in my mind in the 20 days that remain in this campaign, we're going to continue to call for more balanced coverage and continue to call on people all across this country to respectfully participate in this electoral process to ensure that we can all be confident in the vote, and if the vote is fair I'm confident we'll accept it," Pence said. This isn't the first time Pence has changed his position to align with Trump — before he became his running mate, Pence called Trump's proposed ban on letting Muslims enter the U.S. "offensive and unconstitutional." After, he said he was "very supportive" of Trump's "call to temporarily suspend immigration from countries where terrorist influence and impact represents a threat to the United States."

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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.

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