In light of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein quickly raising millions of dollars to fund recounts in key battleground states, skepticism of her intentions, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign announcing it will participate in the recounts, President Elect Donald Trump chiming in was inevitable. He first addressed the newly initiated election recounts on Saturday night in two separate tweets posted three hours apart:
Trump followed up about eight hours later with a veritable tweetstorm Sunday morning calling out Clinton as a hypocrite for criticizing his refusal to say in advance of the election that he would concede if he lost:
Trump’s quotes of Clinton in the final presidential debate, while correctly indicating the spirit of her comments, were not actual direct quotes. Here’s how that section went, verbatim from the Washington Post’s annotated transcript:
WALLACE: But, sir, there is a tradition in this country — in fact, one of the prides of this country — is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner. Not saying that you’re necessarily going to be the loser or the winner, but that the loser concedes to the winner and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country. Are you saying you’re not prepared now to commit to that principle?
TRUMP: What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense. OK?
CLINTON: Well, Chris, let me respond to that, because that’s horrifying. You know, every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him.
The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into my e-mails. They concluded there was no case; he said the FBI was rigged. He lost the Iowa caucus. He lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering; he claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.
TRUMP: Should have gotten it.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: This is — this is a mindset. This is how Donald thinks. And it’s funny, but it’s also really troubling.
WALLACE: OK.
CLINTON: So that is not the way our democracy works. We’ve been around for 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election. You know, President Obama said the other day when you’re whining before the game is even finished…
(APPLAUSE)
WALLACE: Hold on. Hold on, folks. Hold on, folks.
CLINTON: … it just shows you’re not up to doing the job. And let’s — you know, let’s be clear about what he is saying and what that means. He is denigrating — he’s talking down our democracy. And I, for one, am appalled that somebody who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position.
TRUMP: I think what the FBI did and what the Department of Justice did, including meeting with her husband, the attorney general, in the back of an airplane on the tarmac in Arizona, I think it’s disgraceful. I think it’s a disgrace.
WALLACE: All right.
TRUMP: I think we’ve never had a situation so bad in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
WALLACE: Hold on, folks. This doesn’t do any good for anyone. Let’s please continue the debate, and let’s move on to the subject of foreign hot spots.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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