As secretary of state in 2009, Hillary Clinton suggested that in 2000, then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush helped steal the presidential election for his brother, George W. Bush.
Clinton’s remarks were made in a speech in Abuja, Nigeria on Aug. 12, 2009 on the topic of good governance and transparency.
They have taken on renewed significance following Wednesday’s presidential debate, in which Republican candidate Donald Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the Nov. 8 election.
“I will look at it at the time,” Trump said. “I will keep you in suspense.”
Clinton pounced on Trump’s recalcitrance.
“That’s horrifying,” Clinton said. “Let’s be clear about what he is saying and what that means. He is denigrating — he is talking down our democracy. And I am appalled that someone who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that position.”
But the Democrat cast her own doubts on the integrity of the American electoral system by floating the conspiracy theory that Jeb Bush helped his older brother beat then-Vice President Al Glore during a recount of votes in Florida.
“Now, our democracy is still evolving,” Clinton said during the Nigeria speech.
“We had all kinds of problems in some of our past elections, as you might remember. In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state, so I mean, we have our problems too. But we have been moving to try to remedy those problems as we see them.”
Clinton did say elsewhere in the speech that losers of elections should accept the outcome in order to help maintain “a strong democratic system.”
“Now, I know a little bit about running in elections,” she said, according to a State Department transcript.
“And I have won some elections and I have lost some elections. And in a democracy, there have to be winners and losers. And part of creating a strong democratic system is that the losers, despite how badly we might feel, accept the outcome because it is for the good of the country that we love.”
Last week, Clinton said during a campaign event with Gore that the former vice president actually did win the 2000 election.
“Actually you did win, it just wasn’t close enough to make sure that the votes were counted,” she said at a campaign event in Miami, according to Hot Air.
National Review flagged Clinton’s remarks in Oct. 2002 at a Los Angeles fundraiser in which she said that Bush was “selected” and “not elected” president.
