GOP rep: Trump answered election results question ‘like a businessman’

by Rebecca Savransky - 10/20/16 8:45 AM ET

.@RepReneeEllmers on Trump's refusal to say whether he'll accept election outcome: He answered like a businessman. https://t.co/297o5khtPI

— New Day (@NewDay) October 20, 2016

Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) on Thursday defended Donald Trump after the GOP nominee refused to say during the final presidential debate of 2016 that he would accept the results of the general election.

“He didn’t answer the question like a slick politician. He answered the question like a businessman that was going to have a contract,” Ellmers, a Trump supporter, said on CNN’s “New Day.”

{mosads}”And furthermore, I believe Donald Trump is going to win this election, so I was happy to know that [Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton said that she’d accept the outcome of the election and we can move on and get this country going in the right direction.”

During Wednesday night’s presidential debate, Trump would not say that he would accept the election outcome and continued to claim that the election is “rigged” against him.

“I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now,” Trump said in Las Vegas.

“The media is so dishonest and so corrupt and the pile on is so amazing, The New York Times wrote an article about it. They don’t even care, it’s so dishonest. They’ve poisoned the minds of the voters, but unfortunately for them, I think the voters are seeing through it.”

He said he’ll keep Americans in “suspense.”

When pressed further on Thursday, Ellmers noted that Trump didn’t say he “wouldn’t” accept the outcome of the election.

“He said, ‘I will let you know at the time.’ That, to me, is a very fair point,” she said.

“And then he went on to talk about the issues that America really cares about, which is the economy, which is immigration reform, strong borders, making sure that this country moves forward with an economy that we deserve.”

Ellmers said she thinks “a lot more is being made of this than really needs to be.”

“He simply said, ‘I’m not going to say anything until the time,’ ” she said.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton