WaPo | The raw, lingering emotion of the 2016 presidential campaign
erupted into a shouting match here Thursday as top strategists of
Hillary Clinton’s campaign accused their Republican counterparts of
fueling and legitimizing racism to elect Donald Trump.
The
extraordinary exchange came at a postmortem session sponsored by
Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where top operatives
from both campaigns sat across a conference table from each other.
As
Trump’s team basked in the glow of its victory and singled out for
praise its campaign’s chief executive, Stephen K. Bannon, who was
absent, the row of grim-faced Clinton aides who sat opposite them
bristled.
Clinton communications director Jennifer
Palmieri condemned Bannon, who previously ran Breitbart, a news site
popular with the alt-right, a small movement known for espousing racist
views.
“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.”
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, fumed: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”
“You did, Kellyanne. You did,” interjected Palmieri, who choked up at various points of the session.
“Do
you think you could have just had a decent message for white,
working-class voters?” Conway asked. “How about, it’s Hillary Clinton,
she doesn’t connect with people? How about, they have nothing in common
with her? How about, she doesn’t have an economic message?”
