title:  Trump In For TREMENDOUS Shock If He Thinks He Can Just Refuse To Accept Election Night Loss
text: Trump has been very clear for the last week or so   he will not accept the results of Election Night if he s not the winner. He even said at a rally in Ohio: I would like to promise and pledge, to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election   if I win. He also told Chris Wallace, the moderator of the final presidential debate, that he will keep us all in suspense until Election Night is over. And he s made noises about contesting the results if Hillary wins, presumably because there s no way  Crooked Hillary  could win in his world.He s in for a shocker, though. Election law doesn t really allow a candidate to just contest election results because he s butthurt over losing. We have 43 states that allow losing candidates to call for recounts, and half of those have  trigger margins,  where a recount is automatically triggered when the vote is within those margins.They re typically very narrow, though. If Trump is hoping that automatic recounts will be triggered in some of the battleground states, he will probably be badly disappointed. If he thinks he can just say,  I don t like the results in that state, please recount,  because he thinks that s what Al Gore did in 2000, he s got another think coming. Despite that, he s actually said: If Al Gore and George Bush had agreed three weeks before the election to concede the results and waive their right to a legal challenge or a recount, then there would be no Supreme Court case. I m being asked to waive centuries of legal precedent designed to protect the voters. The truth there is that Florida s results were so close that their automatic recount was triggered. That, in turn, led to the longest, most annoying dramatic presidential election imaginable.Electoral votes are sent on to the Senate for certification in early January, and then the Senate President, who s actually Joe Biden, signs off. It s not likely that very many in Congress will want to help draw out Trump s drama if the election s results are clear in their view (which very well could be different from  clear  in Trump s view).Trump has taken a ton of flak for his cries of  RIGGED!  and for his statements that he might not accept the results if he loses. That could be true even if he loses bigly, despite his claims of being willing to accept a clear result. He ll no doubt make noises about sending investigators to all the battleground states that went to Hillary to check for the widespread fraud he ll be sure gave her the win. He won t concede, which many don t like. Even Sen. John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008 and had to swallow that loss and give a concession speech, says: I had a duty to concede, and I did so without reluctance. A concession isn t just an exercise in graciousness. It is an act of respect for the will of the American people, a respect that is every American leader s first responsibility. Trump isn t a leader, though. He s a narcissistic toddler who plans on screaming and crying and stomping his feet in front of all of America on Nov. 8 if he loses. He ll have so much fun watching Paul Ryan, possibly alongside Mitch McConnell, give his concession speech for him.Featured image by Mark Makela via Getty Images