Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) criticized Donald Trump for the GOP nominee’s refusal during Wednesday night’s presidential debate to say whether he would accept the results of presidential election.
{mosads}LePage said Thursday that he didn’t watch the presidential debate. But when he was told about Trump’s refusal to say if he would accept the results of the general election, LePage called it a “stupid move.”
“Not accepting the results, I think, is just a stupid comment. I mean c’mon. Get over yourself,” LePage said in an interview with Newsradio WGAN, Buzzfeed News reported.
“But saying it’s rigged, I agree. I mean there’s no question it’s rigged. You’ve got the inside-the-Beltway people and the media. How are you going to win?”
That echoed comments he made Tuesday, when LePage said he is not confident about a “clean election” due to a lack of voter ID laws.
The controversial Maine governor also railed against the media for its coverage of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“I do believe that the American media has given Hillary a free pass,” LePage said Thursday.
“It’s just not fair to the American people,” he continued, calling Clinton’s campaign a “criminal enterprise” she is “getting away with.”
“She’s buying the country,” he said.
During Wednesday night’s presidential debate, Trump declined to say he would accept the election outcome and continued to warn that the contest is “rigged” against him.
“I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now,” Trump said in Las Vegas during the final presidential debate.
“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 then said he’ll keep Americans in “suspense” as to whether he’d accept the results.
But at a rally Thursday in Ohio, Trump started off by saying he’ll only accept the results of the presidential election if he wins.
In recent weeks, the GOP nominee has been ramping up his charges that the election is being rigged for Clinton.
LePage earlier this week said he isn’t confident there will be a “clean election” in Maine due to a lack of voter ID laws, echoing Trump in expressing doubt about the legitimacy of U.S. elections.
He skipped watching the debate on Wednesday, because he said he made up his mind a long time ago about the election and listening would be a “waste of my time.”