Top Clinton, Trump aides square off at Harvard forum


After every presidential election since 1972, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government has sponsored a two-day forum where the key players from all sides come together to dissect and discuss their campaigns for the historical record. The tone is usually civil, but like everything else that happened in 2016, this year's event was different.
As top strategists and aides to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sat down next to each other on Thursday to go over the past 18 months, pent-up rage bubbled over, The Washington Post reports. Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, spoke out against Trump's campaign chief executive, Steve Bannon, running the hard-right website Breitbart. "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." Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, responded by asking, "Do you think I ran a campaign where supremacists had a platform?" Palmieri quickly shot back, "You did, Kellyanne. You did."
Conway said Clinton didn't have a "decent message for white, working-class voters," and she accused the Clinton team of being "angry," adding: "Hashtag he's your president. How's that? Will you ever accept the election results?" Clinton consultant Mandy Grunwald retorted that fake news was everywhere during the campaign, falsely claiming Clinton was in poor health or about to be sent to prison. "I hear this heroic story of [Trump] connecting with voters," she said. "But there was a very impressive gassing of her." Clinton's chief strategist, Joel Benenson, said it was "clear" that Trump won, but added, "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." (As of Thursday night, Clinton leads Trump in the popular vote by 2.5 million votes).
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In the night's most jaw-dropping moment, Corey Lewandowski, Trump's first campaign manager and CNN contributor, proclaimed that the "problem with the media" was they "took everything that Donald Trump said so literally. 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."
You can listen to the discussion below. Catherine Garcia
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot