Hillary Clinton, who lost to DonaldTrump in 2016, said Tuesday that this year’s Democratic challenger Joe Bidenshould refuse to concede until all votes are counted in a tight and possiblydrawn-out contest, reports AFP.
Clinton said that possible delays in tallying ballots — with mail-invoting set to reach unprecedented levels — mean Biden must hold back fromaccepting defeat initially.
“Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think thisis going to drag out and, eventually, I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side,”Clinton said in an interview with Showtime’s “The Circus.”
Clinton, who won almost three million more votes than Trump overall in 2016but lost to him in the state-by-state electoral college count, suggested thatthe Republicans are hoping to get the result they want through in-personvoting on the day — and not necessarily wait for any delayed mail-in ballotsto be counted.
Her comments follow warnings from both sides that the result of theelection may not be known on the evening of November 3.
Republicans “have a couple of scenarios that they are looking toward. Oneis messing up absentee balloting,” she said.s
“They believe that helps them so that they then get maybe a narrowadvantage in the electoral college on election day,” Clinton said.
She called for Democrats to mount a “massive legal operation.”
“We have to have our own teams of people to counter the force ofintimidation that the Republicans and Trump are going to put outside pollingplaces,” she said.
Americans are expected to vote by mail in massive numbers due to thecoronavirus pandemic, but Trump has opposed more funding for the cash- strapped US Postal Service, acknowledging the money would be used to helpprocess ballots.
Trump says, without providing evidence, that mail-in voting will lead tomass fraud and a rigged election. The practice is already common in parts ofthe United States, without significant fraud, and Trump himself votes bymail.
Democrats accuse Trump of deliberately trying to sabotage the post office’scapacity to deal with the expected big increase in volume.
Trump has repeatedly refused to confirm that he will accept the result ofthe election. Opinion polls show him currently behind Biden both in thepopular and Electoral College contests.
