A post-election reflection forum at Harvard University Wednesday and Thursday turned into a shouting match between campaign aides for Hillary Clinton and president-elect Donald Trump, reportedThe Washington Post. The election is still a raw topic, considering there are currently vote recount efforts underway.
The forum, Campaign for President: The Managers Look at 2016, brought together the aides of other presidential candidates including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Ted Cruz as well. On Thursday, Clinton’s and Trump’s aides traded digs.
Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary for America said, “If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to have lost. I would rather lose than win the way you guys did!” to Trump's people. Trump’s campaign manager Kelly Conway responded “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”
Clinton’s chief strategist Joel Benenson said, “There were dog whistles sent out to people... Look at your rallies. He delivered it.” Conway responded by saying Clinton’s team were being sore losers and saying, “Guys, I can tell you are angry, but wow. 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?”
Sounding like a sore loser herself after someone pointed out that Trump lost the popular vote, Conway later told her team: “Hey, guys, we won. You don’t have to respond. He was the better candidate. That’s why he won.”
Apparently echoing his boss, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook and others partially blamed Clinton’s loss on FBI director James Comey revisiting the subject of Clinton’s emails in the campaign's final days.
Both sides' aides blamed the media for its coverage. Mook said media didn’t cover what Clinton was saying and instead: “...they were constantly trying to unearth secrets and expose.” Mook also said the media didn’t pummel Trump about releasing his tax returns like they did Clinton about her emails, to which Conway replied, “Oh, my God, that question was vomited to me every day on TV.”
Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski complained about media taking things “literally”: “This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything that Donald Trump said so literally,” Lewandowski 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.”
