Report: Obama Had A Plan If Trump Lost In 2016 And Refused To Accept The Results
- 6 years ago
Former President Barack Obama reportedly had a plan in the event then-candidate Donald Trump lost the 2016 election and refused to accept the results.
Former President Barack Obama had a plan in the event then-candidate Donald Trump lost the 2016 election and refused to accept the results, reports the New York Magazine. At the time, that outcome seemed entirely possible as Hillary Clinton was favored to win and Trump said on a number of occasions that the system was "rigged" against him, notes Bustle. According to New York Magazine, which spoke with Ben Rhodes and Jen Psaki, former Obama aides, the plan "called for congressional Republicans, former presidents, and former Cabinet-level officials including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, to try and forestall a political crisis by validating the election result." It further reports: "In the event that Trump tried to dispute a Clinton victory, they would affirm the result as well as the conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community that Russian interference in the election sought to favor Trump, and not Clinton." Notably, Obama did publicly address the many unsupported "rigged" claims Trump made as election day neared. On October 16, 2016, Trump tweeted: "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places – SAD." Just a day later, he reportedly told those gathered at a rally in Wisconsin: "Remember, we are competing in a rigged election." "They even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths, where so many cities are corrupt and voter fraud is all too common," Trump further said. Meanwhile, Obama noted during a mid-October press conference in 2016, "I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the election process before votes have even taken place." "If you start whining before the game's even over, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job...because there are a lot of things that don't go your way," he also commented.
Former President Barack Obama had a plan in the event then-candidate Donald Trump lost the 2016 election and refused to accept the results, reports the New York Magazine. At the time, that outcome seemed entirely possible as Hillary Clinton was favored to win and Trump said on a number of occasions that the system was "rigged" against him, notes Bustle. According to New York Magazine, which spoke with Ben Rhodes and Jen Psaki, former Obama aides, the plan "called for congressional Republicans, former presidents, and former Cabinet-level officials including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, to try and forestall a political crisis by validating the election result." It further reports: "In the event that Trump tried to dispute a Clinton victory, they would affirm the result as well as the conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community that Russian interference in the election sought to favor Trump, and not Clinton." Notably, Obama did publicly address the many unsupported "rigged" claims Trump made as election day neared. On October 16, 2016, Trump tweeted: "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places – SAD." Just a day later, he reportedly told those gathered at a rally in Wisconsin: "Remember, we are competing in a rigged election." "They even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths, where so many cities are corrupt and voter fraud is all too common," Trump further said. Meanwhile, Obama noted during a mid-October press conference in 2016, "I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the election process before votes have even taken place." "If you start whining before the game's even over, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job...because there are a lot of things that don't go your way," he also commented.