US election: ‘I pray to God the results will be accepted’

The pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz has voiced fears about what will happen if the democratic process in the US breaks down and the candidates refuse to accept the election results.

The presidential candidates needed to make a commitment during the first presidential debate that they would accept the results, he told BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur.

President Donald Trump has been critical of plans to increase mail-in voting in November’s presidential election because of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming “there’s tremendous fraud involved”.

The commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, Ellen Weintraub, has denied this, saying: “There’s simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud.”

Watch the full interview on BBC iPlayer (UK only)