CNN host Erin Burnett is sounding the alarm over Donald Trump’s push to cast doubt on the midterms before the results are even in.
On Tuesday’s OutFront, Burnett, 50, picked apart the president’s newest comments on whether he’ll accept the midterm results, with forecasters favoring Democrats to win control of both chambers.
“But what’s the plan? The plan if Republicans do suffer major losses in this election?” Burnett asked.
“Well, Trump is already looking for a way out,” she said, before playing footage of a reporter grilling Trump at Joint Base Andrews ahead of his trip to Texas to stump for Ken Paxton on Tuesday.
“And you’ll respect the results, whatever happens,” the reporter asked.
“I will if they’re honest elections,” Trump replied.
For Burnett, the devil was in the details.
“‘If they’re honest elections,’ it’s always that qualifier. Right?” she asked pointedly. “It’s unclear what he considers an honest election, since, of course, this country has honest elections.”
Citing a Washington Post analysis published Tuesday, Burnett said that “nearly 600 high-profile right-wing social media accounts, podcasts and other online media have published more than 7,000 statements questioning the election’s integrity so far this year.”
For example, on Saturday, right-wing podcaster David Freeman, who goes by Gunther Eagleman, told his 1.7 million X followers that “19 noncitizens were charged in two swing states in one day, and Democrats still swear this never happens.” The Post counted more than 200 posts from him this year casting doubt on election rules.
Burnett then showed where those influencers are getting their talking points: Trump himself, in Texas that afternoon.
“Be careful of the voter fraud. Be careful,” Trump said.
“We will pass voter identification, proof of citizenship, and the Save America Act to defend our sacred American elections.”
Trump has attached conditions before.
Ahead of the 2016 vote, Trump said he’d accept the outcome “if I win.”
But it’s only gotten worse since. The Post counted close to 300 instances in his second term of Trump attacking the integrity of elections in speeches, remarks to reporters, and social media posts. According to the Post, his warnings about voter ID and mail ballots have jumped sixfold since 2025.
On Truth Social on Monday, he dangled a $1 million reward for voter fraud tips that end in a conviction.
His allies have zeroed in on two targets: noncitizen voting and mail-ballot fraud, The Post reported. Terminally online cautions about both have doubled since the 2024 election cycle. Both kinds of fraud are rare, the BBC reports.
The Justice Department is already in court.
It sued to block California from counting 20,000 mail ballots over unproven citizenship claims, a bid an appeals court rejected Monday, according to the Post. At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also appeared skeptical, and he’s expected to rule Wednesday.
Democrats are bracing for a fight.
“We’re making the presumption that the president will not accept the results,” Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters last week, according to the Post.
Just 28 percent of Americans expect Trump to honor the outcome if his party loses, according to a joint Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Oct. 20.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
