President Donald Trump acknowledged the Democrats’ decisive midterm victory, congratulating them while saying he did not view the result as a personal rebuke. (Foto: Instagram)
Advisers to President Donald Trump privately acknowledged that the Democrats’ victory in the midterm elections was so decisive that it could not credibly be challenged. “It was essentially a victory too big to rig,” a senior Trump administration official said, according to a report from CNN International.
The official made the comment anonymously on Wednesday, Nov. 4. In the period before the election, Trump and his allies had begun laying the groundwork for a possible challenge to the results. Trump had repeatedly questioned the integrity of U.S. elections and, in recent months, continued to claim without providing evidence that the system was rife with fraud.
Trump has now acknowledged the defeat and praised his opponents. In a phone interview with Fox News on Wednesday, he said, “Well, I’ll say this: Congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job.”
At the same time, Trump sought to distance himself from personal responsibility for the election outcome, which changes the political landscape for the final two years of his term, and instead blamed fellow Republicans. “They had been waiting for this for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t see it as a blow against me,” he said. Early Wednesday, Democrats won majorities in contests for seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, a result described as a historic defeat for Trump.
