Hillary Clinton delivering concession speech in NY November 9, 2016 Photo Screenshot/ABC News
President Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, urged Hillary Clinton to concede to her Republican rival, Donald Trump, on the night of her devastating loss, a media report said Friday.
Obama made the call as Clinton and her campaign were watching the election slip away from them in ‘Rust Belt’ states, the industrial heartland of America, according to The Hill newspaper, citing a forthcoming book by its senior White House correspondent Amie Parnes.
“You need to concede,” Obama reportedly told Clinton, according to the account.
Clinton allies were apparently hoping she would wait for a turnaround in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — three states where Green Party candidate Jill Stein is now seeking recounts.
Clinton eventually acknowledged her loss and called Trump — but only after her campaign chief, John Podesta, at 2 a.m. told stunned supporters at her election night party to go home because “we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.”
Clinton’s call was made around 2:30 a.m.
“There was a lot of discussion about Michigan and Wisconsin and whether the numbers could flip it,” said a source, according to The Hill.
The source said the final numbers were so close that Clinton might not have placed her call to Trump without a push.
“If anybody knew what actually happened that night, no one would have conceded,” the source said, according to the report.
But after Obama interceded, Clinton ended any debate.
“Just give me the phone,” she reportedly said in frustration. “I’m calling him.”
According to the Hill account, one of the sources said the campaign apparatus and the Democratic National Committee don’t want to be officially affiliated with the push to re-tabulate votes because of the bad political optics of seeking to overturn the election results.
At the same time, some of Clinton’s allies are hopeful that Ms. Stein, the Green Party candidate, who has raised several million dollars to fund recalculations, would be successful.
Stein officially filed a recount request in Wisconsin Friday afternoon, and her campaign has said she hopes to also push through recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it has a Dec. 13 deadline to complete the recount of more than 2.9 million votes.
Podesta and Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias held a conference call last week with activists who believe it’s possible the outcomes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were tampered with, according to a New York Magazine report.
