This morning an article ran at RealClear Politics titled “What if Biden were seeking recounts?” In it the column’s author, J. Peder Zane, asks readers to imagine the roles were reversed — to pretend that Joe Biden had “enjoyed a healthy lead on election night only to see it evaporate as the numbers dripped in from Republican strongholds.” He asks, “Does anyone believe the mainstream media would have rushed to anoint Donald Trump the winner?”
To put this question in a larger context, the Washington Post published a piece on Nov. 11 — a hair over a week past Election Day — that made much of the fact that 8 in 10 Trump voters failed to acknowledge Joe Biden’s win as legitimate. There was little reason to giver data on how the other side felt about the election’s outcome because, in the Post’s view, they were clearly right.
But is at always so cut and dried? Do Democrats take their losses as gracefully as they expect Trump supporters to take theirs? The video that follows answers that question. It is a compilation of reactions from Democratic politicians and the media to Trump’s victory in 2016. More specifically, the snippets speak to the legitimacy of the 2016 election.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC News: Do you think Donald Trump’s win was legitimate? Was the election legit?
DONNA BRAZILE: The election was tainted by this intrusion.
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JOHN LEWIS: I don’t see this President-Elect as a legitimate president.
CHUCK TODD, NBC: You do not consider him a legitimate president?
LEWIS: No.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN: Does he think that Democrats should put this away, this whole idea of legitimate/illegitimate?
UNIDENTIFIED: The President is not going to get in the middle of this right now.
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PETE HEGSETH, Fox News: I get it, but you didn’t answer the question: Is Donald Trump legitimate?
ERIC SWALWELL: I think there’s a cloud of questions around what happened —
HEGSETH: There can be clouds of questions and we disagree on things, but honestly, I mean yes or no, is he a legitimately elected president of the United States when he raises his hand?
SWALWELL: We’re counting on our law enforcement community to get to the bottom of these questions.
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PETER ALEXANDER, NBC News: Do you agree with John Lewis, do you agree that Donald Trump is, in effect, not a legitimate president?
AL SHARPTON: I think that there’s no question that the process that elected him was not legitimate.
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POPPY HARLOW, CNN: You agree with John Lewis on what point?
JERROLD NADLER: That the President-elect, although legally elected, is not legitimate for all the reasons. …
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN: Do you believe, congressman, that Donald Trump will be a legitimate president?
RAÚL GRIJALVA: The legitimacy question…
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The legitimacy question’s come up.
BLITZER: You say he will be president of the United States but you’re at least reluctant to say he will be legitimate president of the United States, is that right?
GRIJALVA: Figuratively, he’s going to be president…
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WILLIE GEIST, MSNBC: But isn’t it more difficult now to work together when you’ve said flatly he’s not even a legitimate president? ‘I don’t recognize his legitimacy,’ John Lewis said that.
NANCY PELOSI: John Lewis said that.
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GEIST: Do you believe that he’s a legitimate president?
PELOSI: Well, he was elected. …
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GEIST: …on the fact that Donald Trump can’t stand hearing that somehow he’s not a legitimate president.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC: And his campaign can’t bear to tell him the truth.
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MIKE BARNICLE: Now the delegitimization of the presidency is taking hold within the country.
…REPORTER: Do you think it was a legitimate election?
HILLARY CLINTON: I think there are lots of questions about his legitimacy.
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CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC (formerly): The 2016 election wasn’t legitimate. … What does it mean to say it’s not legitimate? … It’s not a legitimate election. … You think it was a legitimate election?. … I’m out of time here, Donna. My question to you is, was it a legitimate election? Does it count?
BRAZILE: My personal view is that it was not a legitimate election.
MATTHEWS: So it doesn’t count?
