Flashback: Obama Says ‘No Serious Person’ Would Allege You Can ‘Rig’ Our Elections

President Trump this morning tweeted a quote from President Obama in 2016 dismissing his concern that the 2016 election could be rigged:
 

The tweet did not include a reference to who said this, but political observers quickly recognized the line from a press conference then-President Obama gave in October 2016.

Obama was responding to a question about Trump saying the election could be rigged, dismissing the idea as unserious. 

Trump, Obama said, "should stop whining."

"The larger point that I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they’re so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved," Obama said. "There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time."

Here's an excerpt:

“If you start whining before the game is even over, if whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else, then you don’t have what it takes to be in this job. Because there are a lot of times when things don’t go our way, or my way. That’s okay. You fight through it, you work through it. You try to accomplish your goals.

But the larger point that I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they’re so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved. There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.

And so I’d advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes. And if he got the most votes, then it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government. And it would be my job to welcome Mr. Trump, regardless of what he’s said about me or my differences with him on my opinions, and escort him over to the Capitol, in which there would be a peaceful transfer of power.

That’s what Americans do. That’s why America is already great. One way of weakening America and making it less great is if you start betraying those basic American traditions that have been bipartisan and have helped to hold together this democracy now for well over two centuries.”