Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine has asked the Republican Party to "stand up for the integrity of the American electoral process," as GOP nominee Donald Trump tells audiences that the election is "rigged."
Kaine addressed Trump's repeated allegations of electoral corruption and media collusion in an appearance Sunday on ABC News' "This Week," hosted by town-hall debate moderator Martha Raddatz. He denounced Trump's "scare tactics" on the same morning Trump tweeted that the election was being "rigged...at many polling places."
"Donald Trump has kind of started to go wilder and wilder. I think after—by all accounts, losing the first two debates—he started to make wild claims, kind of scorched earth claims about the election being rigged, etc.," Kaine said. "So we have to keep putting out a message, and we need to call on everybody to speak out about the fact that we run elections, and we run them well here. He shouldn't be engaging in those scare tactics. And we ask the GOP leaders also to stand up for the integrity of the American electoral process."
Trump of late has been invoking Bill Clinton's infidelities as a cudgel against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, attacking the media as united against him and denying the sexual assault and harassment allegations that have enveloped his campaign since the release of a damning audio tape and subsequent claims by at least nine women. As polls show Trump trailing Clinton by anywhere from 4 to 11 percentage points among likely voters, chief among his message has been the claim that the election process is corrupt and will be stolen from him.
"It looks to me like a rigged election," Trump said Saturday in New Hampshire, according to Reuters. "The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect her president." The GOP nominee went a step beyond accusations against the media on Sunday, tweeting, "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD."
Kaine invited voters to judge Trump "on his own words and his own behavior. The American voter is getting ample evidence on which they can make that judgment," he said.
"He's blaming the media, he's blaming the GOP, he's saying that America can't run a fair election. He is swinging at every phantom of his own imagination because he knows he's losing."
The vice presidential nominee also forcefully denied Trump's claims that the Clinton campaign and/or the media have had a hand in fabricating sexual assault allegations against him, saying there is "absolutely" no truth to the claims.
"These are folks who, frankly, saw Donald Trump look America in the face when you and Anderson Cooper were engaging in the debate last Sunday night. And when he was asked directly, listen, you're caught on tape saying the grossest stuff about the way you treat women, did you actually act that way? And he didn't want to answer the question, but you kept pressing and he eventually said no, those were my words, but I didn't act that way toward women. As soon as he looked folks in the face and said those were not my actions, that was essentially the invitation to people who knew otherwise to come out and say wait a minute, I've had an experience with Donald Trump.
"That's what's going on. It's not because of our campaign, but it's very characteristic of Donald Trump that now he's blaming these women," Kaine said.
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