How Trump has undermined public trust in election system leading up to 2024 race

Former President Donald Trump, who in recent days has been attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for not being on the campaign trail much as he has, escalated his rhetoric this week by repeatedly floating a baseless conspiracy theory that his opponent took a day off in the critical final stretch until Election Day because she might already know "something" about the results, sowing distrust in the election.

"You know where Kamala is today? They don't want to tell you. No, no, no. You don't know where she's. She's sleeping. Took a day off," Trump began shortly after taking the stage at his campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday evening, continuing his line of attacks based on the fact that she didn't hold any public campaign events 14 days out from Election Day, even though her campaign says she was taking the day to prep for and participate in two major network interviews.

"We have 14 days [until] the most important election in the history of our country ... How do you take a day off? Fourteen days," Trump continued.

Then he suggested baselessly that "maybe she knows something that we don't know. You think she knows some kind of result that we don't know about? Maybe she knows something," he implied without getting specific before quickly backtracking, "I doubt it. She's bad news."

He doubled down on this baseless rhetoric on Wednesday night in front of a massive crowd of more than 10,000 at a rally in Duluth, Georgia, repeating the line, "Maybe she knows something we don't know. That's bad, right?"

He then further installed the idea, asking, "Does everybody understand that?" The crowd cheered and responded, "Yes."

It was the latest in the long line of Trump's comments undermining the public's trust in the U.S. election system over the last few years, along with his baseless accusations of his political opponents "cheating," constant bashing of mail-in voting and continued push for the need for his supporters to "protect the vote."

His rhetoric on election integrity has deeply affected many of his supporters' perception of the U.S. election system with many voters at Trump rallies over the past two years telling ABC News that they don't trust the election system.

Trump's repeated comments that he will accept the results of the 2024 election "only if it's fair and legal" has fueled such distrust among his supporters -- a baseless suggestion of the possibility that the current election might not be "fair."

Just over the weekend, Trump, answering press questions through a Pennsylvania McDonald's drive thru window during a campaign photo op there said, "Yeah sure, if it's a fair election. Always. I'll always accept it if it's a fair election," when asked if would accept the result of the 2024 election.

And during a podcast with right-wing commentator Patrick Bet-David released last week, Trump baselessly claimed: "If the election's not rigged, we're going to win. If it is rigged, I guess that's a different story, but we'll find out pretty soon."

On Monday, Trump, at a press conference during his visit to a hurricane-damaged part of North Carolina, acknowledged that he had not seen any evidence to suggest that the 2024 presidential election would not be fair.

Later that day at a campaign rally in Greensboro, Trump said his hand-picked Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley will "stop the cheating" by his political opponents.

Still, throughout the election cycle, Trump has been raising baseless questions about the current election system and continued to falsely claim that the 2020 election was "rigged" -- fueling distrust and fear among voters.

"The elections are so screwed up. We have to get back in and we have to change it all," Trump falsely said during a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in August. "We want to go to paper ballots. We want to go to same-day voting. We want to go to citizenship papers. And we want to go to voter ID. It's very simple. We want to get rid of mail-in voting."

Trump has pushed mixed messaging on mail-in voting, often baselessly calling it "corrupt" and "rigged" even as his campaign and the RNC attempt to restore trust in the election system and urge voters to embrace all types of voting methods to maximize voter turnout for the general election.

"We are spending a very significant amount of our time protecting the vote," Whatley said in June when asked about Trump's disparaging comments on mail-in voting. "We are recruiting hundreds of thousands of volunteers that we're going to recruit and train and make sure that we deploy to serve as observers, poll workers and full judges all across the country."

Still, the former president's disparaging rhetoric carried on the following month with Trump falsely claiming at a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: "The mail-in voting isn't working. It's corrupt. But until then, Republicans must win."

Trump has been increasingly softening his tone on mail-in voting in recent weeks as states kick off mail-in voting. Still, at the same time, Trump has baselessly questioned the voting method and shown reluctance to cast ballots through mail-in voting.

"I don't feel confident when you have mail-in voting," Trump said during an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo earlier this month, claiming that other countries have had issues with mail-in voting. Trump clarified that he doesn't want to discourage people from voting, adding, "look, we have to win the election now."

Last month, Trump even threatened to prosecute "to the fullest extent" those who "cheat" in the 2024 election, falsely claiming in a social media post that Democrats engaged in "rampant Cheating and Skullduggery" during the 2020 presidential election.

"Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again," Trump wrote in part on his social media platform.

"Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country," he continued.

The Trump campaign said Trump is clear in that he wants "free and fair elections."

"President Trump has always been clear: we must have free and fair elections or else we won't have a country," Karoline Leavitt, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to ABC News. "That's why the RNC and the Trump Campaign have launched the largest election integrity program in history."

Harris has been reviving messaging about Trump's supposed threat to American democracy as part of an argument -- frequently heard in her stump speeches -- that Trump is unfit for office. Part of that argument is that Trump refuses to accept he lost the 2020 election and the same could happen again.

Earlier this month, Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance, said he does not believe Trump lost the 2020 election. Harris' campaign fired back, saying "Trump chose JD Vance to be his running mate for one reason and one reason only: He will do what Mike Pence wouldn't and put Donald Trump over our Constitution."

"[Vance's] refusal to acknowledge the simple fact that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election is proof that if Trump wins, there will be no one left to check his worst instincts and stop him from gaining unprecedented, unchecked power to do whatever he wants and put our country at risk," Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.

On the presidential debate stage, Trump was given an opportunity to acknowledge he lost the 2020 election -- but did not take it.

ABC News moderator David Muir read aloud recent quotes from the former president in which he appeared to admit being defeated by President Joe Biden, including last week when he said he "lost by a whisker."

"I said that?" Trump responded. He went on to say that such remarks were sarcastic and that he did not, in fact, accept his loss.

Trump has gone on to repeat the false claims he "lost by a whisker" at recent campaign events.

At campaign rallies, Trump's message to his supporters going into the final stretch of the election has been to make it "too big to rig."

"We have to have a landslide of an election that's too big to rig. Early voting is underway. So get everyone you know, get your friends, get your family, get Alice to get her husband, who just will not get off that couch," Trump said at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday.

Trump supporters across the country are already deeply skeptical of the American election system, repeating various false and debunked claims that the former president and his allies have pushed over the years.

Garrett Spratley of Reno, Nevada, who attended Trump's rally there earlier this month, said he believes the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and that he's still concerned about voting machines, despite election officials and experts across the country repeatedly denouncing such concerns.

Still, he believes Trump is going to win Nevada "in a landslide" this year because more people are going to vote for him.

"So I think that because there are so many more people that are going to vote for him in this election than the last one, and I believe he won the last one in Nevada and throughout the country, I think he's going to win Nevada in a landslide for sure, if there's no fraud," Spratley said.

Dave Glaz from Oak Creek, Wisconsin, who attended a Trump rally in Racine, Wisconsin, this summer, expressed skepticism about mail-in voting and said he wants to see a stricter voter ID law. He said he hopes the Republican Party will pay closer attention to prevent any fraud.

Asked if he would accept the results of the election either way, he said: "I would be very -- I mean, I would have to accept it. I have no choice, but I'm very skeptical."

Dave Nace of Apollo, Pennsylvania, who attended Trump's second rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this year, said he's skeptical of the election system because he does not trust the government.

"I think it should be vote only on the day of the election, paper ballots. That's the only way to make it fully secure," Nace said.

Asked if he'd accept election results after November, he said: "We have to accept it because we're in America, but hopefully this country will do what's right."