When Donald Trump is talking about a "rigged" election system, he's referring to the mainstream media more than the nation's polling places, the GOP nominee's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on Monday, echoing similar statements made by Trump's running mate Mike Pence and some of his surrogates.
"Anybody who reads the newspaper online or in print or has a remote control probably has recognized that in many ways, the fix is in for Mrs. Clinton when it comes to the mainstream media," Conway told CNN's Jason Carroll, who stopped her outside Trump Tower Monday.
"I think people are smart enough to figure out what they think is news. I think these days, particularly with Mr. Trump involved, the news is just presuming what people want to talk about and I have noticed that she spent tens of millions of dollars just in negative advertisements."
Trump, though, shortly after Conway was on CNN tweeted that his fight actually is against election fraud:
Clinton's campaign is about Trump, not about issues like Obamacare, ISIS and national security, Conway continued.
"It certainly isn't about economic growth and lower taxes," Conway said. "She is trying to avoid issues for the next 22 days in the hopes that this will just end up being about Mr. Trump. If it's a referendum on Mr. Trump, this country has not been completely served in hearing exactly what her vision is for these burning issues."
But when it comes to the nation's polling districts, Conway pulled back a bit, saying there are "any number of factors" at play.
"If there's compelling evidence of voter fraud, obviously as early voting goes on…" she began, with Carroll interrupting her to say there "hasn't been any evidence of that."
"I didn't say that," she responded. "I said if there is, we would take action."
On Sunday, Pence told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" that Trump's complaints of a rigged election refer to the American people being "tired of the obvious bias in the national media."
In addition, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNN's "State of the Union" program that Trump is talking about "80 percent to 85 percent of the media" being against him."
He added, though, that there has been a "lot of cheating going on over the years," including "dead people" voting for Democrats, and he "would have to be a moron" to say if he thinks the election will be fair in Chicago and Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Trump is ready for Wednesday night's final presidential debate and Conway said he "felt really great" about the last debate, which she said he won.
"Mrs. Clinton, for all her considerable gifts, seemed off message, and we may have seen the best, most prepared Hillary Clinton in the first debate," said Conway. "We'll see on Wednesday. He loves these forums. He loves these debates.
"He's the one out there every single day, including today in Wisconsin, tomorrow in Colorado, talking to people at rallies, at forums. He's not taking five days off the trail like she is. That's her personal choice. I know scarcity is her strategy. The less people see her the more they forget they don't trust her."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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