The subject of losing the popular vote is a touchy issue for President-elect Donald Trump. Yesterday, he tweeted (among other things) this:
Not stated in the second tweet: Trump lost all three states, which also happen to have Democratic governors. In other words, the implicit subtext is that Hillary Clinton didn’t win those states fairly. Officials from all three states have weighed in (including the Republican governor-elect of New Hampshire) on the accusation:
UPDATE: CNN’s Don Lemon made an interesting observation tonight, asking if there isn’t some sense of irony or payback for Obama supporters in all of this because President Obama had to endure years of questions about the legitimacy of his presidency at the hands of people like Donald Trump because of the birther lie. [Note: This is a paraphrase, I will add an update to this post with transcript or video clip when it becomes available.]
UPDATE II: Here’s the transcript
MCENANY: He would have won it because he would have campaigned differently. But you have people out there calling for recounts that are unsubstantiated based on no evidence. You have Jill Stein coming on our network an hour or so ago suggesting that there were hacks or potentially hacks and we won’t know until we count the votes. There are people trying to delegitimize the president-elect of the United States?
LEMON: Why would he care? And here’s the other thing. Here’s the other thing, though. I mean, don’t you think that people are going on maybe even the current president is sitting there going, now you know how it feels to have people try to delegitimize you as a president?
MCENANY: I think you do. And in some ways the president of the United States is sticking up for Donald Trump on this and saying —
LEMON: But he did it for years with the whole birther thing.
MCENANY: He asked the question and he got his answer.
LEMON: This is karma.
MCENANY: And he moved on. But no, the president of the United States —
SELLERS: No, he never moved on.
MCENANY: I have to praise President Obama because he has actually slapped this down, and said, hey, you know what, the people spoke, let’s give him a chance. And that’s commendable.
LEMON: I don’t know — I don’t know – wait a minute. I don’t have — I have no idea what you’re saying.
MCENANY: I’m saying President Obama has been really great in all of this, and I want to commend him for really standing up for the people’s vote and saying let’s give this guy a chance. I think it’s fantastic.
LEMON: OK. But my question was, now he knows how it feels to have people say, you know, or at least insinuate that you’re not a legitimate president. Because he did it for so many years. What does that have to do with the president saying, you know —
MCENANY: Well, I think —
LEMON: Because he was being gracious and class in saying —
MCENANY: Sure.
LEMON: We must accept the outcome of the election.
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