The Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has claimed that there is a possibility of the US presidential election being “rigged” and also labeling his rival Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton, as “the devil” and praising the primary opponent of Republican speaker Paul Ryan.
The Republican nominee has in the past few days faced a barrage of criticism following his controversial comments about the Gold Star parents of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq.
At a campaign town hall in Columbus, Ohio, Trump said he feared that the election would be “rigged,” in an unprecedented statement for a major party nominee in modern history.
“I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” he told the crowd.
He did not elaborate but later repeated the charge on Monday night with Sean Hannity on Fox News, saying that “November 8th, we’d better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged. And I hope the Republicans are watching closely or it’s going to be taken away from us.”
He also promised a “bloodbath” if the Democrats attempted to “steal” the election.
On Monday night, Trump also escalated his rhetoric about Democratic rival Clinton. In a packed rally in a high school gym in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, he called the former secretary of state “the devil”.
The statement came after Trump reiterated a frequent allegation of his on the campaign trail in recent days, that in endorsing the former secretary of state, Bernie Sanders made a deal with the devil. He went further this time, explicitly saying Clinton was the devil.