On Election Night, Barack Obama Had to Pressure Hillary Clinton Multiple Times to Concede
Paul
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Election night 2016 will go down as the worst night of Hillary Clinton’s political life. All the pundits and political strategists had predicted a Clinton victory, insisting that Donald J. Trump had no chance of defeating her.
Despite Hillary being the overwhelming favorite, Donald J. Trump scored one of the biggest electoral upsets in modern political history, and the loss hit Hillary pretty hard, according to the new book “Shattered” by reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.
In the book, the authors describe a gloomy election night, in which Barack Obama had to pressure Hillary Clinton multiple times to concede.
“Mr. President,” Hillary Clinton said softly. “I’m sorry.” When HRC called Obama on election night: https://t.co/DlMFvR6G9K
— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) April 17, 2017
From The Washington Post:
Shortly after 11:00 p.m., after Wisconsin was called by Fox News, Allen and Parnes report that the campaign fielded a series of calls from the White House pushing Hillary Clinton to concede, even though the margins in many states were extraordinarily close. President Barack Obama thought it was over and did not want a messy recount.
First came a call from White House political director David Simas to Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook. “POTUS doesn’t think it’s wise to drag this out,” Simas said.
But Clinton was dragging it out.
So then she got a call from POTUS. “You need to concede,” urged Obama, who repeated the message in a follow-up call to Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
At last, Clinton said, “Give me the phone.” And then the first woman who was going to be president got her opponent on the line and said two words she never expected to say: “Congratulations, Donald.”
It is also being reported that Hillary had to apologize to Obama for losing the election, adding even more humiliation to an already terrible night for the Democrat.
Everyone remembers that on election night, Hillary Clinton refused to come out and concede in front of the cameras, instead sending out campaign chairman John Podesta to inform her fans that the Democrat would not make a statement:
Things appeared to be heading in a bad direction for Crooked Hillary when her campaign cancelled post-election fireworks on Election Day, perhaps realizing that the end was near.
Hillary’s defeat to then-candidate Donald Trump was utterly humiliating, as everyone around her was insisting there was no way she could ever lose the election. One has to wonder if Obama’s insistence that Hillary concede was to spare the Democrat any further embarrassment by demanding a recount, although her allies would still pursue such efforts in the months to come.
Why do you think Obama had to pressure Hillary to concede? Was it to help her save face? Share your thoughts below!