Trump Is Only Presidential-Election Loser Who Denied Losing
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hillary Clinton formally concedes defeat the day after the 2016 presidential election. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Most viewers of the October 1 vice-presidential candidate debate, even those who thought J.D. Vance won overall, had to acknowledge that his weakest moment was right at the end, when he evaded questions about his running mate's insurrectionary denial of defeat in 2020 and tried to depict Facebook "censorship" of news stories as a bigger threat to democracy than the violence Trump supporters carried out on January 6, 2021. Notably and fatuously, Vance argued that Trump's agreement to move out of the White House peacefully before Biden inauguration following the failure of the MAGA insurrection proved he had accepted defeat (never mind that Trump has repeated his election denial claims hundreds of times since then and has made the alleged theft of the presidency a major theme of his 2024 campaign). But Vance also sneaked in a line of defense that should have drawn more attention as completely outrageous:
[W]e have to remember that for years in this country, Democrats protested the results of elections. Hillary Clinton in 2016 said that Donald Trump had the election stolen by Vladimir Putin because the Russians bought, like, $500,000 worth of Facebook ads. This has been going on for a long time. And if we want to say that we need to respect the results of the election, I'm on board. But if we want to say, as Tim Walz is saying, that this is just a problem that Republicans have had. I don't buy that.
Let's be clear about this. Hillary Clinton reached out to Donald Trump to concede defeat five minutes after the Associated Press and other media outlets called the race for the Republican in the wee hours of November 9, 2016. She made a formal concession speech later that day, and there was zero ambiguity about her acceptance of the results:
I still believe in America and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.
Clinton and her campaign did not challenge the results nationally or in any state subsequently. Yes, there were some isolated efforts by individual House Democrats to object to this or that state's electoral-vote confirmation on January 6, 2017, mostly to dramatize incidents of GOP voter suppression, but none were supported by Hillary Clinton, and all were ruled out of order by presiding officer and Vice-President Joe Biden. Three years later, Clinton allowed as how Russian interference may have had a decisive effect on Trump's victory, but she never pursued any vindication of that theory.
By contrast, Trump never conceded defeat in 2020, and still hasn't to this very day. Indeed, he claimed victory on Election Night based on what he most definitely knew was a temporary lead that would soon be reversed as many million perfectly legal mail ballots were counted. His campaign pursued a blizzard of dubious voter-fraud claims, all of which (with the minor exception of a challenge to a detail of how Pennsylvania counted mail ballots, which didn't involve enough ballots to matter) were rejected by the courts. But he pressed on, convening fake elector panels, pursuing obscure and asinine legal theories for rejecting state-certified (including Republican state-certified) results, coercing Vice-President Mike Pence to toss out Biden-won electoral votes, and when all that failed, encouraging a mob to "stop the steal" at the Capitol.
Comparing Trump's actions to Clinton's is absurd on its face, but beyond that, Vance is refusing to acknowledge that Trump's conduct with respect to the 2020 results is without parallel in the era since 1887, when federal laws first established a clear timeline for decisively determining presidential-election winners. Formal concessions by defeated presidential candidates became a custom in 1896. Since then every loser has conceded, other than Trump. Yes, in 1916 a grumpy Charles Evans Hughes waited two weeks before congratulating Woodrow Wilson. And of course, in 2000, Al Gore didn't throw in the towel until active litigation over dead-even and decisive Florida was resolved, but he conceded the minute the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him in Bush v. Gore, and never for a moment depended on goons tointimidate his opponents. Losers of other very close races like Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Gerald Ford in 1976, and John Kerry in 2004 all conceded within 24 hours of the polls closing on Election Day.
Donald Trump stands alone as the ultimate sore loser who can't even admit he lost years later. And more to the point, he's given every indication he'll behave in exactly the same way if he loses on or soon after November 5. For J.D. Vance to pretend this is just what all politicians do is a total crock.
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How many times have we heard the false equivalency right here on NT?
And somehow none of that matters to "patriots" on the right.
Well, pointing out this is wrong was quick to do....
He fought and lost, but he did conced....unless Newsweek is now a far right publication...
Full Text of Speech in Which Donald Trump Finally Concedes Election to Biden Without Naming Him - Newsweek
Oh FFS. Not this shit again.
First, Trump obviously didn't write that, and it was only released at the urging of someone on his staff in an attempt to calm the storm after Jan 6.
Second, there is no actual concession in the statement, only a side-stepping acknowledgement that Congress had certified the results and a new administration would be inaugurated on Jan 20.
Third, anyone with two brain cells to rub together should be able to recognize that if Trump is still going around claiming he won, then he HAS NOT CONCEDED!
For crying out loud, this is from just a few days ago...
"You know last time, last election, we did great in 2016 a lot of people don't know we did much better in 2020," he said. "We won, we won, we did win. It was a rigged election, it was a rigged election."
Good grief.
Trump, and his lackeys and fans, like to say that Trump said something on both sides of an issue. It gives them "truthy" flexibility. Something to cling to.
"concession" is an absolutely meaningless concept. As Al Gore demonstrated, it can be retracted at will and it didn't stop Hillary from joining lawsuits trying to overturn results or calling Trump an illegitimate President. Elected Democrats have called every Republican election winner this century illegitimate, so let's stop pretending Trump's delay in conceding is somehow without precedent. Just another example of so many Democrats complete lack of self-awareness.
Was there no "Jack Smith" in Trumps DOJ? Where were the criminal cases of election interference brought against Clinton, Maxine Waters, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Obama , or any of the other "election deniers" among Democrats that you fantasize about?
Your position on this is totally ridiculous. Trump was indicted for a reason - he went way farther than anyone ever had before.
Republicans these days are obsessed with finding non existent equivalence.
Yeah, not really. It's important for losing candidates to help their supporters accept results, especially in an era of increasingly heated election cycles.
And once the Supreme Court ruled, he conceded again and even told people to accept Bush for the sake of the country.
Lawsuits the campaign didn't even want, but once Jill Stein initiated them they felt obligated to have a seat at the table. Once concluded, that was that.
Three years after the election, and only after the Mueller Report found that Russia had indeed made efforts to interfere on Trump's behalf.
Speaking of a lack of self-awareness...
Yes, Democrats Have Called Some Elections Illegitimate. GOP Election Denialism Is Far Worse.
Seriously, give that a read. Published by Cato, so not exactly a 'far left' hit piece.
right, Saying "I concede" on the telephone magically makes it okay for the loser and her entire party to repeatedly call a Presidency illegitimate for years, claim it was stolen, claim elections machines were hacked etc etc...
h e conceded again and even told people to accept Bush for the sake of the country
Again, the concession is meaningless and didn't stop his own party from claiming the election was rigged, the Presidency was stolen etc.etc...
w suits the campaign didn't even want,
Right. Did you type that with a straight face?
f ter the Mueller Report found that Russia had indeed made efforts to interfere on Trump's behalf
WTF does that have to do with anything? Russians and other bad actors "interfere" in every election. Iran is helping Harris again. Does that justify Trump calling it a stolen election if he loses?
so not exactly a 'far left' hit piece
This article appeared in The Bulwark on November 8, 2022.. Are you unfamiliar with the Bulwark? It's entire raison d'etre is to create left wing hit pieces.
The traditional phone call was just to Trump. She gave a concession speech to supporters the morning after. Here's a couple of excerpts from the transcript:
"...Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans."
"...We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead."
Again, her handful of negative remarks only came after the Mueller report.
Gore wasn't responsible for that. He did exactly the right thing. Here's a couple of excerpts from his transcript:
"...Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honor the new President-elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together in fulfillment of the great vision that our Declaration of Independence defines and that our Constitution affirms and defends."
"...This has been an extraordinary election. But in one of God's unforeseen paths, this belatedly broken impasse can point us all to a new common ground, for its very closeness can serve to remind us that we are one people with a shared history and a shared destiny. Indeed, that history gives us many examples of contests as hotly debated, as fiercely fought, with their own challenges to the popular will. Other disputes have dragged on for weeks before reaching resolution. And each time, both the victor and the vanquished have accepted the result peacefully and in a spirit of reconciliation.
So let it be with us.
I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too. But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country."
Hell, the graciousness in those speeches makes them feel like they're from politicians in some other country and not our own. It is impossible to imagine graciousness from Trump. That's how far he's lowered the bar and degraded our politics.
Indeed I did. Look it up if your memory is failing you. The Clinton campaign had no plans to file lawsuits themselves because they didn't think they would go anywhere, and they were right.
Umm... Again, as pointed out, the Mueller Report was the only reason Hillary made her comment about illegitimacy, three years after the election. Even then it wasn't much of a lie, it was an opinion based on evidence. Trump started flat out lying without evidence the very night of the 2020 election, and has continued to this day, still without evidence.
Ah, sorry. I did miss that it was a reprint. Still, not far left. The Bulwark was founded by conservatives and remains center-right according to the bias reports I could find. Being anti-Trump doesn't make them left wing. Many prominent conservatives are anti-Trump. The list of public acknowledgments to that effect seems to get longer every day.
Good old days.... aka the days before Trump.