Election 2016 - The Untold Stories
An interesting look into the personalities involved with and/or reporting on the election last November:
In November 8, 2016, America's chief storytellers—those within the bubbles of media and politics—lost the narrative they had controlled for decades. In a space of 24 hours, the concept of "conventional wisdom" seemed to vanish for good. How did this happen? What follows are over 40 brand new interviews and behind-the-scenes stories from deep inside The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, and more—plus first-hand accounts from the campaigns, themselves. We've spent a year hearing the spin. Now it's time for the truth.
THE RUN-UP
Steve Bannon , Trump campaign CEO : When I first came on the campaign, I said, “You have a hundred-percent chance of winning.” We just got to stick to that plan. Even with Billy Bush, I never wavered for a second.
Jim Margolis , Clinton campaign senior adviser : I am normally a glass-half-empty guy when it comes to expectations on election days. This was the first big election where I was absolutely certain we were going to win.
Dave Weigel , The Washington Post : I called Jeff Flake the Sunday before the election. I said, “I have one round of questions if Hillary wins, and one if Trump wins.” And he just started laughing, saying, “Why would you bother asking the second one?”
Rebecca Traister , New York magazine : We got up around 7 a.m., and there was an electric current running through my body.
Ana Marie Cox , Crooked Media, formerly of MTV : I was staying at my in-laws’ place in New York. They’re Trump supporters. They weren’t in town, but my father-in-law made a joking bet with me. He said, “The next time we see each other, there will be a President Trump.” I remember laughing at him.
Neal Brennan , comedian/writer : I was at SNL . Chappelle was like, “Dude, I feel like Trump’s gonna win.” I was like, “Dude, I’ll bet you a hundred thousand dollars he won’t win.” He did not take the bet, thankfully.
Sen. Tim Kaine , Democratic vice presidential candidate : I thought we would win, but I was more wary than many for the simple reason that the U.S. had never elected a woman president and still has a poor track record of electing women to federal office.
Ana Navarro , CNN commentator and Republican strategist : I schlepped my absentee ballot around with me for a month. It was getting pretty beat up inside my bag. I would open it up and look at it every now and then and say, "I'm not ready. I can't bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton. Please, God, let something happen that I don't have to do this."
Brian Fallon , Clinton campaign national press secretary : There had been a battleground tracking poll our team had done over the weekend that had us up 4 [points]. We were up in more than enough states to win, taking us over 270. The public polls all showed a similar outlook.
Zara Rahim , Clinton campaign national spokeswoman : We were waiting for the coronation. I was planning my Instagram caption.
Van Jones , CNN political commentator : The Democrats had this attitude, which I think is very unhealthy and unproductive, that any acknowledgement that Trump had a chance was somehow helping Trump, and that we all had to be on this one accord that it was impossible for him to win. I thought that was stupid. I've never seen that strategy work.
Matt Oczkowski , formerly of Cambridge Analytica (Trump campaign data firm) : When you see outlets like the Huffington Post giving Trump a 1 percent probability of victory, which is not even physically possible, it's just like, “Wow, people are going to miss this massively.”
Roger Stone , longtime Trump ally : She was just dead in the water.
Joel Benenson , Clinton campaign chief strategist : I go into the 10 o'clock call and we're getting reports from the analytics people and the field people. And they finish, and whoever's leading the call asks if there's anything else. I said, “Well, yeah, I got a call 20 minutes ago from my daughter in Durham, North Carolina. People are standing on line and aren't moving, and are now being told they need to vote with paper ballots.” To me, that was the first sign that something was amiss in our boiler room process. That's essential information. We needed those reports so the legal team would activate. I was stunned, and actually quite nervous. I thought, “Do we even have what we need on the ground to manage election day?”
“I MEAN, IT LOOKED LIKE A LANDSLIDE”
5 p.m.
Nate Silver , FiveThirtyEight : When I was coming in on the train at 5 p.m., according to our model, there was one-in-three chance of a Clinton landslide, a one-in-three chance of a close Clinton win, and a one-in-three chance of a Trump win. I was mentally preparing myself for each of those outcomes.
David Remnick , editor of The New Yorker : I thought about, and actually wrote, an essay about "the first woman president," and the historical background of it all. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the suffragettes, the relationship with Frederick Douglass...a historical essay, clearly written in a mood of "at long last" and, yes, celebration. The idea was to press “post” on that piece, along with many other pieces by my colleagues at The New Yorker, the instant Clinton's victory was declared on TV.
Bret Baier , Fox News chief political anchor : We got the exit polls at 5 p.m. in a big office on the executive floor. Rupert Murdoch and all the staff were there. It looked like we were going to call the race for Hillary Clinton at 10:30 or 11 p.m.
Steve Bannon : The exit polls were horrific. It was brutal. I think we were close in Iowa and Ohio and everything else was just brutal. Losing everywhere. Florida, Pennsylvania. I mean, it looked like a landslide.
Ashley Parker , The Washington Post, formerly of The New York Times : The RNC thought they were going to lose. The Trump campaign supporters thought they were going to lose. They were rushing to get their side out of the blame game. I spent part of my day lining up interviews for later that night or the next morning to get their version of events.
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There's a lot more at the source article. NT wouldn't let me post it all, but it is interesting reading, some will like it some won't, though it does have every viewpoint regardless of side of the aisle.
Seems more than obvious that the reporters reported feelings instead of doing the research and background on this-I believe the are largely at fault for the early morning 'Surprise'.
Let's keep it civil, please.
Thanks Spikegary (may I call you Spike?) for the read .. very interesting.
I could not turn the TV off - I had to watch to the end to see the final results ... shaking my head had become a possible permanent condition!
I was one of those that thought Trump would be the winner ... but I was so strongly against both candidates, I thought things were going to be tense in the US regardless of which one made it to the Oval Office.
Sure, you can call me spike or Gary, or both. Whatever floats your boat. I had a feeling about who would win, but I truly did not know, but got a decent night sleep and woke up to the news.
I would have probably dreamt about it .. which might have been worse : )
Quite a long article, but worth the read. Lots of opposing viewpoints, so there's something for everyone!