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[whyamihere]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...00bd9d38a02_story.html?utm_term=.1974ac9ce8ba

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The raw, lingering emotion of the 2016 presidential campaign erupted into a shouting match here Thursday as top strategists of Hillary Clinton’s campaign accused their Republican counterparts of fueling and legitimizing racism to elect Donald Trump.

The extraordinary exchange came at a postmortem session sponsored by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where top operatives from both campaigns sat across a conference table from each other.

Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri condemned Bannon, who previously ran Breitbart, a news site popular with the alt-right, a small movement known for espousing racist views.

“If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to have lost,” she said. “I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.”

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?”

The session was part of a two-day forum that the school’s Institute of Politics has sponsored in the wake of every presidential election since 1972. It gathers operatives from nearly all of the primary and general election campaigns, as well as a large contingent of journalists, with the stated goal of beginning to compile ahistorical record.

Generally, the quadrennial gatherings are frank but civil ones, in which political operatives at the top of their game accord each other a measure of professional respect.

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook also acknowledged that her operation had made a number of mistakes and miscalculations, while being buffeted by what he repeatedly described as a “headwind” of being an establishment candidate in a season where voters were anxious for change.

He noted, for example, that younger voters, perhaps assuming that Clinton was going to win, migrated to third-party candidates in the final days of the race.

Where the campaign needed to win upwards of 60 percent of young voters, it was able to garner something “in the high 50s at the end of the day,” Mook said. “That’s why we lost.”

Conway added, “There’s a difference for voters between what offends you and what affects you,” arguing that Trump was speaking more directly to people’s anxieties and needs.

Strategists for Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who waged a strong challenge against Clinton for the Democratic nomination, agreed. “There was a large part of the Democratic primary electorate who had concerns about the secretary’s veracity and forthrightness,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’s campaign manager.

Clinton’s campaign insisted, again and again, that their candidate had been held to a different standard than the other contenders — as evidenced by the controversy over her use of a private email system while secretary of state.

Palmieri contended that many political journalists had a personal dislike for the Democratic nominee, and predicted that the email issue will go down in history 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.

Mook added that Trump deftly used his rally speeches to “switch up the news cycle.”

“The media by and large was not covering what Hillary Clinton was choosing to say,” Mook said. “They were treating her like the likely winner and they were constantly trying to unearth secrets and expose.”

For instance, Mook posited the media did not scrutinize Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns as intensively as Clinton’s private email server.

Conway retorted: “Oh, my God, that question was vomited to me every day on TV.”

“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.”

Clinton consultant Mandy Grunwald had a darker interpretation, which she expressed in an icy backhanded compliment to the Trump team: “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit for the negative campaign you ran”

She noted that the murky corners of the internet were rife with false stories that Clinton was in dire health, and on the verge of going to prison. “I hear this heroic story of him connecting with voters,” Grunwald said. “But there was a very impressive gassing of her.”

Benenson, meanwhile, served notice that the election may be over but that the battles it spawned are not.

“You guys won, that’s clear,” Benenson said. “But let’s be honest. Don’t act as if you have a popular mandate for your message. The fact of the matter is that more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump.”

At which point Conway turned to her side and said: “Hey, guys, we won. You don’t have to respond. He was the better candidate. That’s why he won.”

Kellyanne Conway continues to be one of the most vile, petty people in politics. Which feels like a gigantic accomplishment given the competition.

EDIT: Oof at that full exchange with Conway and Palmieri.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Sounds like a regular gaf thread

 

[excelsiorlef]

Conway is vile.

 

[RoKKeR]

Kellyanne is the worst. I cannot fucking stand her.

 

[Aselith]

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”

C'mon, you know you did.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

"Hashtag he's your president"

this is politics in 2016, this was uttered by the president-elects manager

"Hashtag he's your president"

 

[bob_arctor]

I would love if shouting matches happened anytime Trump and his ilk tried to speak. Call them out every time.

 

[EatinOlives]

Pretended to not know who David Duke was so as to avoid having to denounce his endorsement.

Campaign pretends he didn't provide a platform for white supremacists.

It's always fun seeing dishonest fuckers try to squirm their way out of being told like it is. ACTUALLY told like it is, not "hey I totally agree with this fuckwad's deplorable viewpoints" "told like it is".

 

[nephilimdj]

Why only bold the trump bits? both deserve criticism

 

[Boney]

Bannon is a piece of shit but this still seems reactive to having lost instead of having being proactive at shutting down the white supremacist wave.

But yes this seems like a GAF thread up to the T. It's just missing some Bernie love/hate

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I hope all these buffoons self destruct in the next 18 months.

 

[whyamihere]

I would love if shouting matches happened anytime Trump and his ilk tried to speak. Call them out every time.

Good for Jen Palmieri for laying into Conway.

Hey remember when the Russians hacked John Podesta’s email and released them and everyone who was stupid thought Jen Palmieri was an anti-Catholic bigot because of an offhand comment she made about the hypocrisy of Catholic elite and Paul Ryan put out a statement about the “anti Catholic bigotry” of the Clinton campaign?

Why only bold the trump bits? both deserve criticism

Yes, that's why I didn't bold such bolded statements such as this

Where the campaign needed to win upwards of 60 percent of young voters, it was able to garner something “in the high 50s at the end of the day,” Mook said. “That’s why we lost.”

 

[Regulus Tera]

"Hashtag he's your president"

this is politics in 2016, this was uttered by the president-elects manager

"Hashtag he's your president"

Conway is a despicable person but let us remember Clinton literally said "Pokémon Go to the polls" at one point during the campaign.

 

[PopeReal]

It is the same thing when dealing with Trump supporters around here.

It is never about racism according to them so you can't even have a real conversion.

 

[Aselith]

Why only bold the trump bits? both deserve criticism

Who bolds the boldsmen?

 

[BigDes]

It is the same thing when dealing with Trump supporters around here.

It is never about racism according to them so you can't even have a real conversion.

Yep. Cowards won't own their bullshit.

 

[Alavard]

Why only bold the trump bits? both deserve criticism

I'm not the OP, but it seems to me if you really cared about this you would do so yourself - provide the criticism that is.

 

[WiiredShawn]

Kellyanne Conway is the kind of person who almost makes me want to give up being a feminist. Seriously, I can't even grasp the mental world she lives in, but her outward projection of it is infuriating.

 

[BanGy.nz]

I look forward to dancing on the political graves of Conway, Lewandowski and Bannon.

 

[Darryl M R]

It is the same thing when dealing with Trump supporters around here.

It is never about racism according to them so you can't even have a real conversion.

You have to play 4D chess to get them to the conclusion that racism garnered votes for Trump and then you have to have at least 5 posts saying "not all Trump voters" and "broad brush strokes."

So I can see how in a real life example it just gets to the point where you either shout at the other person if you are not hosting an interview. I mean look at the Daily Show thread about Tomi. All BLM protestors are rioters, but not all Republicans are alt-righters.

 

[OniBarubary]

Good thing I didn't know about this. Might've blacked out and woken up covered in blood with someone's throat in my mouth.

 

[adj_noun]

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”

Wouldn't have asked that one, Conway.

 

[Zaph]

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

So this is it, this is how he comes to terms with campaign run on outright lies? It's okay because regular people do it around the dinner table?

Conway added, “There’s a difference for voters between what offends you and what affects you,” arguing that Trump was speaking more directly to people’s anxieties and needs.

What the fuck is she even saying here? She has no response to the racist campaign she was part of, because she knows her only real answer is "it worked!".

 

[whyamihere]

So this is it, this is how he comes to terms with campaign run on outright lies? It's okay because regular people do it around the dinner table?



What the fuck is she even saying here? She has no response to the racist campaign she was part of, because she knows her only real answer is "it worked!".

Kellyanne'a twitter bio is literally "We won."

 

[WhiskerFrisker]

Conway is a walking witch.

 

[iammeiam]

What the fuck is she even saying here? She has no response to the racist campaign she was part of, because she knows her only real answer is "it worked!".

If this campaign taught her anything, it's that as long as she makes noises with her mouth and pretends to always have the upper hand, people will call her smart and an asset even if it's senseless gibberish.

Kellyanne is by far the most frustrating component of Trump's staff to me.

 

[Escape Goat]

That's some skillful deflection by Conway.

 

[diaspora]

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”

do you not?

 

[Boylamite]

The jobs aren't coming back, at least not in the way where you could raise a family and pay for your house in cash. The global economy, automation and the Republican party's decades-old, sustained attacks on worker's rights all have a hand in getting us to this point.

It's a shitty fact that no one wants to acknowledge, and America bought into the lie that a (millionaire) billionaire shyster will somehow reverse the clock to a golden age of prosperity.

Trump's campaign was all rooted in this one big lie. Of course, the "again" part of "make America great" is part rose-colored glasses and part dog whistle... but who would have thought that throwing the whistle away and being so brazen would have worked so well? I'm still reeling by how many people it resonated with.

 

[Aselith]

do you not?

"We won and you need to realize that. We had the better candidate. Instead of talking about 30, 000 white supremacists" wait for it


....



....



....


"let's talk about 30,000 emails that were hidden from the American people"

 

[Rebel Leader]

“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.”

I will be sure to go back in time and tell the Soviet union back in the day when a remark about them caused them to prepare for battle.

 

[jroc74]

Conway added, “There’s a difference for voters between what offends you and what affects you,” arguing that Trump was speaking more directly to people’s anxieties and needs.

Wow, so even Trumps own ppl admit it....

So yea when ever someone brings up voting for Trump doesn't mean you accept the racism, bigotry, sexism he empowered... I will bring this up...

 

[God Dayumm]

Hashtag he’s your president.

KEK

But this is not circus enough. They need to throw punches and record it vertically

 

[jerry113]

they're like a bunch of high schoolers

 

[Rebel Leader]

"Hashtag he's your president"

this is politics in 2016, this was uttered by the president-elects manager

"Hashtag he's your president"

Reminds me when trump kept saying "your president " to Hillary when talking about obama.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

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.

There are so many things wrong with this I can't

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Palmieri contended that many political journalists had a personal dislike for the Democratic nominee, and predicted that the email issue will go down in history as “the most grossly overrated, over-covered and most destructive story in all of presidential politics.”

Yep. I bet many journalists wished they had held Trump at a higher standard and hadn't given him the amount of free advertisement like they did.

And lol at

postmortem session sponsored by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

The Kennedy brothers are definitely rolling in their graves. JFK and RFK must be like "I died for a country that voted Trump? Fuck me"

 

[MIMIC]

LOL, interesting exchange. There are plenty of valid points from both, and also plenty of delusion from both.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Conway is a despicable person but let us remember Clinton literally said "Pokémon Go to the polls" at one point during the campaign.

Oh god dont remind me

 

[JackDT]

Conway's reaction to criticism of Trump's actions, "He’s the president-elect, so that’s presidential behavior."

What a horrible person she is.

 

[Balphon]

Eh, that's all pretty par for the course with Conway. She's a political hack and doesn't really care that much about governance, as evidenced by the fact that she's going to cut and run now that the campaign's over and make oodles in consultancy.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

“Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”

How do you even ask this with a straight face? You must be able to internally lie to your very core to act like there's a shred of doubt that the Trump campaign catered to supremacists, racists and red-pill trash.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Kellyanne is the worst. I cannot fucking stand her.

Basically. She honestly thinks they weren't appealing to white supremacists? Wow, talk about tone deaf.

 

[Nikodemos]

Yes, that's why I didn't bold such bolded statements such as this

Where the campaign needed to win upwards of 60 percent of young voters, it was able to garner something “in the high 50s at the end of the day,” Mook said. “That’s why we lost.”

What demographic segment does "young voters" encompass? The under-30? The under-25 folks who get their first vote in?

 

[HarryKS]

You guys never learn.

It's an impediment at this point.

 

[see5harp]

Fuck Conway and her lazy ass eye.

 

[Zaph]

Basically. She honestly thinks they weren't appealing to white supremacists? Wow, talk about tone deaf.

She knows, she just doesn't care. It doesn't negatively affect her and her career has never been hotter.

If it wasn't obvious before, Trump's win has taught us that yeah, a lot of white people may care about racism, but the moment something might be in it for them, they'll happily throw those people under the bus.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

You guys never learn.

It's an impediment at this point.

What's the hindrance?

I've heard criticism about the DNC or leaders of the democratic party being insular or "out of touch" with Joe The Plumber types. Having a stronger economic message I totally understand and get behind. But when the other side plays into racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, anti healthcare, anti science and climate stuff, there's frankly no give or anything to compromise over.

I don't think the left should act more malleable, when the right reacted to losing by doubling down with tea-baggers, and neo-nazis.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

I think Kellyanne Conway is an evil witch, but what Jennifer Palmieri said there shows why Hillary lost.

She surrounded herself with incompetent fools.

"I wouldn't have wanted to win in that way" is such fucking nonsense when the guy on the other side is the single greatest threat to our democracy we may have ever seen.

You HAD to win.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

It's not that Trump supporters didn't take his divisive rhetoric seriously. It's that they were either fully on board with it (some) or completely indifferent to it (most).

They only cared about how it goes for them. Which unfortunately doesn't shock me. People vote for their perceived best interest.