Top Trump, Clinton strategists clash at post-election Harvard forum
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Top strategists for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton clashed heatedly Thursday at a post-election forum over the qualities of the candidates and the forces behind the Republican's unexpected victory last month.
The conversation turned particularly contentious over whether Trump had boosted and benefited from the so-called alt-right, a movement that includes white supremacists and anti-Semitics.
"Hashtag, he's your president, how about that?" Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway demanded after Clinton pollster Joel Benenson accused Trump of using "dog whistles" to appeal to bigots. "Will you accept the election results?"
"Kellyanne, hashtag, if he's going to be my president he's got to show me that white supremacy is not acceptable steps from the Oval Office," Clinton adviser Karen Finney shot back. That was a reference to Trump strategist Steve Bannon, former CEO of a website popular with the alt-right.
The campaign managers, pollsters and other top aides from 16 presidential campaigns gathered in a conference room Wednesday and Thursday for a quadrennial conference that Harvard's Institute of Politics has sponsored since 1972. Three weeks after Election Day, the conference was timed to take place while memories — and wounds — were still fresh.
For the Trump and Clinton strategists lined up on opposite sides of a long table, the arguments from the campaign were as fierce as ever.
The Clinton team argued she lost in large part not because of her own failings but because of unfair media coverage, campaign emails leaked by Russian intelligence, and the unprecedented public comments by FBI Director James Comey. She also faced an electorate angry at Washington and eager for change.
The Trump team argued he won because he connected with voters Democrats had ignored and dismissed. "Do you think you could just have a message for white working-class workers?" Conway said. "How about it's Hillary Clinton? She doesn't connect with people."
The two-day conference included advisers from three Democratic campaigns (Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley) and 13 Republican campaigns.
Strategists for his GOP rivals acknowledged that Trump and his message resonated with the party's base in a way that few had foreseen.
"Trump was Godzilla walking into the power plant," David Kochel, top strategist for former Florida governor Jeb Bush, said ruefully. "He touched the third rail; he touched the fourth rail; he touched the fifth rail, (and) he just kept getting bigger."
"Nobody cared about solutions," said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who ran the campaign of her father, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. "They wanted to burn it all down ... and figure out what to do with the ashes afterwards."
Trump routinely rejected the advice of his senior strategists in a campaign that relied on his gut instincts and fit the mood of an angry electorate, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said. He recalled pulling Trump aside for a private conversation after the candidate had characterized Arizona Sen. John McCain, a POW during the Vietnam war, as not a hero because he had been captured.
"I closed the door and I said I think we have a problem," Lewandowski said. "My advice was probably we need to go and apologize to John McCain." Instead, Trump quickly convened a news conference and doubled down on his criticism of McCain and others for what he said was inadequate treatment of veterans.
Even the alarm of advisers after he questioned the ability of a judge of Mexican descent to be fair to him wasn't likely to dissuade him.
"Understand, here's a man who had never run for office before, had just cleaned the clock of 16 prominent Republicans," Fabrizio said," Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio said. Every time that others argued that his provocative statements would create a political catastrophe, "Well, guess what, that didn't happen."
"You guys won," Benenson said, but noted that Clinton carried the popular vote. "Don't act like you have some popular mandate for your message."
Amid a rumble of protests from the Trump side, Conway told their side, "OK, guys, we won; you don't have to respond." She said to the Clinton side, "You've learned nothing about this election."