Why were journalists so surprised by Donald Trump’s election victory in November? They forgot about the country. That was the conclusion from author and Bloomberg politics editor John Heilemann on Thursday’s CBS This Morning. Co-host Gayle King quizzed, “When you look at it now, what do you think you missed?”
Heilemann replied, “I think for journalists, one of the things that the campaign taught is it is really important to cover the candidates... but don't take your eye off the country.”
He continued, “We cover the candidates, but sometimes we ignore the country or don't pay enough attention to the country.” The veteran journalist concluded, “I think one of the things that we should all learn from this is the candidates are really important. But what's going on out there in the country is just as important.”
Heilemann’s co-author for two books, Mark Halperin, appeared on the Today show, Thursday. He offered the not-exactly novel idea of “listening to the voters.”
I think the biggest thing is listening to the voters. I went to so many Trump rallies, you'll see Trump voters talking in this film from all over the country. They knew he was gonna win, and more importantly, I think in listening to them, I didn't pick it up clearly at the time, they knew why. They understood what his appeal was, better than the pundits, in explaining this is why the country is gonna vote for Donald Trump.
Don’t forget what’s going on in the country? Listen to voters? Seems like obvious advice. On June 15, 2015, Heilemann scoffed at Trump’s announcement at a run for the presidency:
I do not hate Donald Trump, but I do not take him seriously. I thought, you know, everything that was garish and ridiculous about him was fully on display....Will it get him anywhere close to becoming the nominee or the President of the United States? I think not.”
(For more journalistic predictions from that day, go here.)
On the June 17, 2015 edition of With All Due Respect, he explained the media’s view of the businessman: “For the national press corps and other elites, Donald Trump’s campaign is a pure vanity exercise, and a target ripe for outright mockery, or low-level derision.”
Heilemann and Halperin have a documentary, Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time,” airing on Showtime, Thursday at 9pm.
A partial transcript is below:
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CBS TM
2/2/17
8:37JOHN HEILEMANN: There's a really compelling thing in this film that I find so poignant is this interview I did with John Podesta at 3:45 in the morning on election night right after they have come back to Westchester. And I ask him, “What would it be like if she loses tomorrow?” And he says, “It would be terrible and devastating for a guy like this to be president. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.” But when he says it, “I don’t think it’s going to happen,” you see this just slight look in his eye of maybe, like had just a slight premonition early morning on Election Day that he wasn't fully confident. And I think it's the one moment I ever saw anybody on the Clinton campaign give — betray any sense that they thought she might lose.
CHARLIE ROSE: This is before the voting started.
HEILEMANN: Right. 3:45am on election day. She had just come home from her last campaign event. We were on the tarmac at the airport in Westchester. And again, they had been so confident throughout the entire fall that she would win, she had an electoral college lock. He could never be president, and then there was this little moment in John Podesta's eyes that suggested early morning on Election Day like maybe we might actually lose.
GAYLE KING: But there was that moment with you on November 9, 2AM where you sort of say, “How did we get this all wrong?” What did we miss?
HEILEMANN: Right. Right.
KING: When you look at it now, what do you think you missed? You and everyone else. It wasn’t just you. A lot of people.
HEILEMANN: That was the moment on Election Night when everyone at every network, all of us and Republicans and Democrats and many people around Donald Trump who assumed he was going to lose until 10:00 on election night. I think one of the things we all — I mean, look, the polling in the battleground states turned out to be wrong. Nationally, it was right. But in the battleground states, it was wrong, kind of systematically by a couple points in a lot of places. But I think for journalists, one of the things that the campaign taught is it is really important to cover the candidates. It’s really important to hold them accountable, but don't take your eye off the country. You know? And it’s easy for us —
ROSE: Take your eye off the voters.
HEILEMANN: Yes. That's what I mean. We cover the candidates, but sometimes we ignore the country or don't pay enough attention to the country. I think one of the things we should all learn from this, the candidates are really important. But what's going on out there in the country is just as important.
KING: Yes. Never assume. Make an ass out of you and me is what I learned in school.
