Steve McMahon, a Democratic Party member described as a media consultant, apparently either hasn't followed the news sufficiently since the presidential election, or is determined to rewrite history. My vote is with the latter.
McMahon appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday and before criticizing President-Elect Donald Trump's victory rallies as "incendiary, he outrageously claimed that Hillary Clinton has "been very gracious since the election," and that she "didn’t contest the election results" or "ask for recounts."
McMahon "has worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates including Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, and Dick Gephardt." His work with Dean included his "successful 2005 campaign for chairman of the Democratic National Committee." Wow. Who knew that you needed a political consultant to conduct a campaign among about 300 people, namely "the chairs and vice-chairs of each state Democratic Party committee and over 200 members elected by Democrats in all 50 states and the territories"?
Here's the video clip showing McMahon fantasizing about how Hillary Clinton has been such a model citizen since losing on November 8:
Transcript (bolds are mine throughout this post):
MSNBC's CRAIG MELVIN: I want to ask about something else here, Steve. Hillary Clinton sending out this letter, this holiday letter to supporters. This is part of what Hillary said in the letter — "While we didn’t achieve the outcome we sought, I’m proud of the vision and values we fought for and the nearly 66 million people who voted for them. I believe it is our responsibility to keep doing our part to build a better, stronger and fairer future for our country and the world." What role would you like to see Hillary Clinton play from here on out?
STEVE MCMAHON: Well, I mean, I think if she could help play the role of somebody who tries to take down the temperature a little bit, that would be great.
She’s been very, very gracious since the election. She congratulated Donald Trump. She didn’t contest the election results. She didn't ask for recounts. She said that we should, as Americans, all hope that the president-elect can be successful. So I think she’s doing what you would hope that a defeated opponent would do.
And I wish that Donald Trump would sort of take a message from that, stop his victory rallies that are incendiary and continue to raise these things like he’s campaigning for president and begin to act more like a president, and a little bit more restrained and responsible. Take his security briefings and do some of the things that presidents have to do every single day.
Now it's time for a reality intervention for the benefit of Steve McMahon and those who might buy his nonsense.
Hillary Clinton did not publicly concede the race on Election Night when it became clear that she had lost. Instead, she sent out campaign manager John Podesta to pretend that the matter had not yet been settled ("We'll have more to say tomorrow"). She did not formally concede until late Wednesday morning. That maneuvering was hardly "gracious."
On November 26, Mark Erick Elias, counsel to Hillary Clinton, i.e., writing on behalf of the Clinton campaign, wrote, in part (HT American Thinker):
Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides." Elias also promised to participate in any Michigan or Pennsylvania recounts which might take place. If you're asking for a recount, you're at minimum questioning the subject elections' validity, meaning that you're "contesting" them.
A contemporaneous New York Times item confirmed that the campaign had done what Elias had said they intended to do: "Hillary Clinton's Team Intends to Join Wisconsin Recount Pushed by Jill Stein."
As a result, as Guy Benson noted at Townhall the next day, with an accompanying video:
... Joe Scarborough can barely contain himself as he mocks Hillary Clinton and the mainstream media for their breathtaking double standards on accepting settled election results. When Trump hedged on whether or not he'd honor the outcome at the final presidential debate, Clinton declared herself "horrified," and the media acted equally appalled.
... When Hillary solemnly agreed to abide by the election's result, Trump reserved the right to explore recounts and investigations, or whatever. People flipped out. Clinton said Trump was "threatening our democracy." Her fans were aghast. And now she's betraying her above-the-fray, adult-in-the-room posture, which she only adopted when she assumed she'd win.
In other words, it was quite widely known that Hillary Clinton's campaign was involved in contesting the election results a month ago, to the point where she was ridiculed for hypocrisy, even on MSNBC. Yet Steve McMahon was able to pretend that none of this happened.
The network's Craig Melvin, as seen in a longer clip from the interview, didn't challenge McMahon at all, and simply moved on to his other guest, asking him if he was "pleased with the President-Elect's performance so far."
Three other related thoughts:
- The supposedly "spontaneous" Hillary sightings in the woods could be seen as a passive-aggressive attempt by a losing candidate to remain visible while hoping that the recount and other Hail Mary efforts somehow panned out.
-
Those who don't believe that the challenges and recounts didn't ultimately have the purpose of reversing the election result need to explain why — and they can't — an electoral challenge was mounted in Florida only after it became clear that the Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania efforts would likely fail.
- A genuinely classy defeated opponent doesn't sit by and watch people who either voted for her, were outraged by her loss, or were outraged by Trump's victory commit acts of violence and disruption for weeks on end without speaking out against them. But Hillary Clinton, like President Obama, has been disgracefully silent on that topic.
As to McMahon's contention that Trump's victory rallies are "incendiary," give me a break.
If you want "incendiary," Steve, let's recall a certain President-elect who, in December of 2008, weighed in when union workers took over a bankrupt window factory in Chicago — on the side of those who occupied the plant. As a result, two banks forked over $1.75 million they were under no obligation to pay to the occupiers just to make the problem go away and to avoid the wrath of President-Elect ... Obama.
I don't recall anyone describing Obama, who publicly stated that the occupiers were "absolutely right," as being "incendiary," though he most certainly was.
Finally, I would suggest to Steve McMahon that Hillary Clinton, the person who called half of Donald Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables," is the last person one should rely on to "bring down the temperature."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
