In what presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway describes as “like a movie,” she retells what happened leading up to and at the moment Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff called to concede on election night.
But not before Clinton’s Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, arrogantly contacted Kellyanne the evening prior to election day to orchestrate what he thought was going to be Trump’s concession call to Hillary.
Yet fortunately for Mook, it was Clinton’s trusted aide and confidant Huma Abedin who was tasked with eating a rather large helping of humble pie election night.
As reported by Ashley Collman of London’s The Daily Mail;
Kellyanne Conway reminisced about the moment Hillary Clinton called to concede to Donald Trump the night of the presidential election.
The president’s campaign-manager-turned-advisor recalled the historic moment in a talk at the National Review Institute’s Ideas Summit in Washington, DC Friday morning.
The night before the election, Conway said she and Clinton’s team spoke over email about when the concession call would happen.
‘Robby Mook (Clinton’s campaign manager) had agreed the night before through an email to me that within 15 minutes of the AP calling the race for Secretary Clinton, they would wait 15 minutes and then she would take to the podium and declare victory.
‘So he was basically saying that you have 15 minutes for Mr Trump to get out there [and give a concession speech] or she’s going to declare victory either way.
‘And then he said in the event that Mr Trump wins, Secretary Clinton will call him within 15 minutes of the AP,’ Conway said with a wink, implying that Clinton staffers were confident their boss would win.
But Clinton’s camp held up their end of the deal. Conway said that she looked down to see her phone was ringing.
‘I look down – literally it was like a movie – my phone is ringing and it said “Huma Abedin” [Clinton’s longtime aide]. And I said, “Hey, Huma. What’s up?”
‘And she’s absolutely lovely, she really is. And she’s like ‘Hi Kellyanne, Secretary Clinton would like to speak to Mr. Trump.” And I said, “Now?” And she said, “Is he available?” And I said, “We’re very available!”
‘And I handed [Mr Trump] Â the phone. My husband took a screenshot of that – the 2:30am. I handed him the phone and he and Vice President Pence and their wives were there and the rest is history.
‘So that was just really a remarkable moment and I think it was a remarkable moment for anybody, any David fighting a Goliath, frankly,’ Conway recalled.
Following the call, President Trump gave his victory speech – marking a break with tradition since the loser of the race usually gives a concession speech first. Clinton gave her concession speech later in the day.
