The extraordinarily nasty 2016 presidential campaign may be over, but the resentment stoked over the past 18 months continues to simmer. The wounds are, understandably, still raw for the Clinton campaign and the lingering ill will was on full display when top Clinton operatives, along with their Trump counterparts and staffers from their beaten primary rivals, took part in the traditional election postmortem forum at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
During the historically civil forum, which is held every four years dating back to 1972, Clinton staffers accused the Trump campaign, and its chief executive Steve Bannon, of peddling racism to the American people. “If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to have lost,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said. “I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.”
Here’s more on the heated exchange from the Washington Post:
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”
“You did, Kellyanne. You did,” interjected Palmieri, who choked up at various points of the session.
“Do you think you could have just had a decent message for white, working-class voters?” Conway continued. “How about, it’s Hillary Clinton, she doesn’t connect with people? How about, they have nothing in common with her? How about, she doesn’t have an economic message?”
Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief strategist, piled on: “There were dog whistles sent out to people.. . .Look at your rallies. He delivered it.”
At which point, Conway accused Clinton’s team of being sore losers.
“Guys, I can tell you are angry, but wow,” she said. “Hashtag he’s your president. How’s that? Will you ever accept the election results? Will you tell your protesters that he’s their president, too?”
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook cited lower-than-needed turnout among young people, the challenges of being the establishment candidate in a change year, and the late-breaking interjection of FBI Director James Comey to revive Clinton’s email controversy in the waning days of the election, as obstacles the campaign was unable to overcome. Both Palmieri and Mook were critical of the press coverage of their candidate, particularly her emails, a story Palmieri characterized as “the most grossly overrated, over-covered and most destructive story in all of presidential politics.” “If I made one mistake, it was legitimizing the way the press covered this storyline,” Palmieri said.
In the end, the only thing both sides could agree on was no one has any conclusive idea yet why Donald Trump won and Hillary Clinton lost. Former campaign manager turned CNN blowhard Corey Lewandowski, however, offered up this gem of wisdom. “This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything that Donald Trump said so literally,” he said. “The American people didn’t. They understood it. They understood that sometimes — when you have a conversation with people, whether it’s around the dinner table or at a bar — you’re going to say things and sometimes you don’t have all the facts to back it up.”
And there you have it.
