Americans Must Be 'Prepared to Mobilize' If Trump Refuses Election Results: Campaign Group

An anti-Trump political campaign group said Americans must be prepared to take action if the president refuses to accept the results of November's election.

The grassroots Stand Up America group accused President Donald Trump of being an "existential threat to our democracy" after he refused to say that he would willingly accept defeat during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

"I'm not gonna just say yes. I'm not gonna say it, and I didn't last time either," Trump said, in reference to comments he made during a 2016 televised debate alongside Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton.

The group says Trump's remarks are an "insidious" way for him to sow doubt about the results before a vote has even been cast. Several polls have suggested Joe Biden is currently the favorite to win the election in November.

Trump has frequently claimed without evidence that expanded mail-in voting in November will undermine the election results, including baseless allegations that "MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES," resulting in the "SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!"

The president previously claimed that the reason he lost the popular vote in 2016 was due to "millions" of illegal votes, without there being any evidence to suggest this was the case.

Trump has also suggested that he may stay in power for longer than the maximum two terms, including posting videos on Twitter of Trump campaign slogans every four years from 2024, as well as "Trump 2188," "Trump 9000," and "Trump 4Eva."

In a statement, Stand Up America founder and president Sean Eldridge said that Trump once again refusing to say whether he would accept the results of the 2020 election shows he has "no respect for the rule of law."

Eldridge added: "For five years, Trump has sought to undermine our elections again and again—from soliciting foreign interference to making baseless claims about voter fraud to lying about the results of the 2016 election.

"The American people must be prepared to mobilize if Trump refuses to concede—and we will be prepared to meet the moment if he does."

Last month, Stand Up America launched Protect the Results, alongside fellow grassroots progressive organization Indivisible which aims to build a network of "millions of Americans" to take action should Trump refuse to accept the results or if he attempts to declare victory while the actual outcome remains unclear.

"The writing is on the wall: Trump has spent the last 3.5 years undermining our democracy, ignoring our institutional norms," Indivisible Co-Executive Director Ezra Levin said. "He's already trying to sow the seeds of that trend after November 3."

Trump's refusal to say whether he will accept the 2020 results has also been criticized by several U.S. lawmakers.

"This is why we vote & why everyone must vote & why the ballots must be counted & why we need paper ballots & why we have a Congress & a Constitution," former 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar tweeted.

"We do not live in a dictatorship."

New Jersey representative Bill Pascrell added: "It isn't just Trump. The 247-of-248 Republican senators and reps voted to keep him in office this year support his authoritarianism because GOP leaders view democracy as a threat to their total power."

In a statement to Newsweek, Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh said: "It is now the stated goal of Democrats to eliminate protections for election integrity, such as mailing a ballot to every registered voter, whether they asked for one or not.

"They also want to eliminate signature matching and clear the way for ballot harvesting, which are also wide open opportunities for fraud. We already see widespread problems with mail-in voting, including in New York and New Jersey, with even a cat that's been dead more than a decade receiving a ballot.

Murtaugh added: "Against this backdrop, we don't know what kind of shenanigans Democrats will try leading up to November.

"If someone had asked George W. Bush and Al Gore this same question in 2000, would they have been able to foresee the drawn out fight over Florida? The central point remains clear: In a free and fair election, President Trump will win."

Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from Tim Murtaugh.