Kamala Harris conceded the election to President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, nearly 12 hours after it became clear that she had lost her bid for the presidency and Trump had won re-election.
Amid a media avalanche and a thousand different hot takes and insights into this historic election, a slight word of warning: In the days ahead, we are likely to hear lots of talk about how quickly Kamala conceded to Trump; how quickly Hillary Clinton conceded to Trump in 2016; and how both these gracious concessions stand in contrast to Trump's refusal to immediately concede to Joe Biden in 2020.
Don't buy the hype, folks.
Here is the truth of the matter: Democrats never actually "conceded" the 2016 election.
Yes, it's true that Hillary Clinton called up Donald Trump on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, and said she would bow out of the contest, effectively "conceding" the race to him.
But you're forgetting something: Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, would go on to spend about 2.5 years alleging and insinuating that Trump had stolen the 2016 election, that he was not the lawful U.S. president, that Hillary Clinton had in fact won the race but that Trump had colluded with Russia to snatch it from her; in general, they claimed that Trump was an "illegitimate" president.
That's not hyperbole. As late as September of 2019, Hillary herself was still claiming that Trump was an "illegitimate" president, that the election "wasn't on the level," and that history would "sort it all out."
And of course I don't need to remind you of the endless congressional inquiries, outrageous allegations of Trump's involvement with Russia, and ongoing claims that Trump "colluded" with Russia to steal 2016.
People, that's not "conceding" an election. It's just stretching your election denial out over a period of years.
That puts Kamala's Wednesday "concession" in a whole new light. It's certainly possible that Democrats might not try the same deranged trick again as they did in 2016; they may simply accept the election results and move on.
Then again, Kamala herself dabbled in promoting the "Russia collusion" conspiracy theory, alleging in 2019 that Trump was on Russia's payroll:
So it's entirely possible that we could see a similar, drawn-out, unhinged, conspiracy-laden attempt to deny Trump's victory over the next four years. Time will tell. We can only wait and see.
