I remember the day after Hillary won, when Donald Trump spoke to reporters in Manhattan, saying, “Crooked Hillary stole this election—she stole it! Millions of people voted illegally. I’ll never concede!” We Democrats, jubilant by a close but decisive win, dismissed him as a sore loser and assumed he would fade away, never to be taken seriously again—but that’s not what happened.
In the following weeks Trump held rallies in states that he won—Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Louisiana, Alabama—each time working up the crowd to a furor. “The dishonest media is lying to you about this rigged election,” he said. “They’re not telling you about the millions of illegal votes—votes by illegal immigrants, by Mexicans.” When the anger turned into violence, with several cameramen beaten in Louisiana, CNN and other networks pulled out.
The Republicans talked of recounts, but Trump wasn’t questioning the counts, just the eligibility of voters—and yet he offered no proof that anyone voted illegally. To Trump’s supporters, it never mattered; they were sure Hillary stole the election and were furious. The day after her inauguration, a MAGA-hat-wearing crowd of several hundred thousand, some displaying weapons, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. It surely would have turned violent if not for the tens of thousands of police and National Guard on duty.
But violence did occur in late winter and early spring of 2017. Each week we heard of people in rural areas and small towns shooting, and sometimes killing, neighbors who voted for Hillary. In some larger towns, white mobs harassed and beat up Latinos, and some communities imposed curfews. In March, a gunman charged into a black church in Cincinnati, killing 37 members of the congregation. President Clinton called for calm, and Democratic and Republican leaders spoke out against the violence—but Donald Trump said nothing.
The violence didn’t abate until the Republicans set to work impeaching Hillary Clinton, which seemed to quell angry Trump voters. Of course, the Democrats in the House did their best to hamper this, and the Republicans were happy to let them do that because they knew they didn’t have the votes in the Senate to convict—and a loss there could renew the violence. So the impeachment process crawled along through 2017, with numerous committee hearings, repeating investigations and hearings into Benghazi, the e-mail server, and other fabricated crimes. Still, it made the news every day, overwhelming the Clinton administration’s agenda.
Donald Trump didn’t stay quiet long. Once the violence receded and his supporters renewed the Tea Party movement, he led the charge, using every opportunity to condemn President Clinton and her administration. He even went after Bill Clinton, claiming to know several women coming forth with accusations of rape against him, and when that didn’t happen, Trump claimed that Hillary had threatened them. “This is an abuse of power by Crooked Hillary, an abuse of power, another impeachable offense,” he said.
Trump became a regular call-in guest on the morning shows, particularly Fox & Friends, where Steve Doocy would address Trump as “Mr. President,” bringing smiles to his colleagues’ faces. He was also popular on Morning Joe and became best pals with Joe and Mika, frequently seen out socializing with Melania and them in Manhattan. Of course, Sean Hannity couldn’t get enough of Donald Trump, and the Hannity show (and Fox News) had never seen better ratings. However, Donald Trump’s favorite communication tool would always be Twitter, and his morning Tweets set Twitter abuzz and frequently sidetracked the daily White House press briefing.
President Clinton’s first approach was to ignore Donald Trump, to turn away questions about him, to simply laugh when someone repeated something he said—but she began to appear rattled by him, and the public started thinking his attacks perhaps had some basis. When she did start responding, people thought she sounded too rehearsed, too unemotional, too cold—and she was even less convincing. Trump’s daily rages against her, combined with Republican accusations during committee hearings, took a toll, and her average approval ratings fell to the high 30s. Her loss of support and Republican control of both houses killed her legislative agenda, as well as all judicial nominations, including her renomination of Merrick Garland for Scalia’s seat.
Despite losing the presidency, or perhaps because of it, all was going well for Donald Trump. He relished his role as America’s favorite troublemaker. His supporters loved not only his daily attacks on Hillary Clinton, but also his activities that either intentionally or unintentionally thwarted her ability to govern. He became best friends with Russia’s Putin, Turkey’s Erdogan, and even North Korea’s Kim, and Secretary of State Biden angrily claimed Trump was representing himself to them as the true U.S. president, confusing or even sabotaging U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s businesses flourished, and his friendship with Putin allowed the building of Trump Tower Moscow. Rumors always circulated about Trump’s crimes, and his questionable relationship with the Russians, but he remained largely untouchable: These were white collar crimes, he wasn’t president, and prosecution of him would appear politically motivated.
As we entered 2018, it became clear that impeachment would go nowhere with the current Senate, so the Republicans put all of their energy into the midterms. With the floundering of the Clinton administration, the weakness of her support, and growing skepticism of her ability to govern, we Democrats were dispirited and unenthusiastic, but the Republicans and the Tea Party were the total opposite, doing the usual and the legal to win the election, but also engaging in underhanded and illegal efforts to suppress the Democratic vote. Election day 2018 for the Democrats was a bloodbath, with the Republican House gaining 17 seats and the Republican Senate gaining eight seats.
We Democrats of course were decimated and depressed, but we thought we had dodged a bullet in the Senate because the Republicans only had 64 seats, three shy of the 67 needed to follow the House impeachment of President Clinton with a conviction. However, the Republicans didn’t give up and early in 2019 managed to “persuade” at least three unknown Senate Democrats, all apparently coming up for reelection in 2020, to vote with them. Word is that the Republicans are so confident of their votes that they will also impeach Vice President Tim Kaine, supposedly on a manufactured perjury charge.
If that happens, Speaker Paul Ryan will be president.
“Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation—only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. Mr. Trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the ‘greatest infomercial in political history.’ He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign—for him—was always a marketing opportunity.”
—Michael Cohen, Statement to House Oversight Committee, February 27, 2019
Also by Edward Adams: