President Trump has a gift.
He can get a person to reverse on a previously held position without saying a single word. His mere presence in U.S. politics is enough to compel both supporters and opponents, white-knuckled with rage, to flip on a dime so long as they believe it helps or hurts him.
Consider, for example, the fact that Hillary Clinton now thinks it’s good to question the legitimacy of U.S. presidential elections. Never mind the fact that she held and vigorously propounded the exact opposite view a mere 12 months ago.
“[T]here are lots of questions about its legitimacy,” Clinton said this week in an interview with Mother Jones, referring specifically to supposed voter suppression efforts and Russia’s meddling in U.S. politics.
Russia “was one of the major contributors to the outcome,” she said, adding that Moscow used “weaponized false information [in] a very successful disinformation campaign [that] wasn’t just influencing voters, it was determining the outcome.”
She added, “We don’t have a method for contesting that in our system. That’s why I’ve long advocated for an independent commission to get to the bottom of what happened.”
This is rich considering it was a little more than a year ago that she recoiled in horror – horror! – after Trump refused to say whether he would accept the election results if he lost.
“I will look at it at the time,” he said during an Oct. 19 presidential debate. “I will keep you in suspense.”
Clinton pounced.
“That’s horrifying,” she replied. “Let’s be clear about what he is saying and what that means. He is denigrating — he is talking down our democracy. And I am appalled that someone who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that position.”
She continued, listing other examples of when Trump has suggested that the system had been rigged against him.
“It’s funny, but it’s also really troubling,” Clinton said. “That is not the way our democracy works.”
“We’ve been around 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections and 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,” she added.
Clinton didn’t leave it at that. Far from it.
Her official Twitter account said later on Oct. 24: “Donald Trump refused to say that he’d respect the results of this election. That’s a direct threat to our democracy.”
That same day, during a stump speech in New Hampshire, Clinton claimed Trump was, “the first person, Republican or Democrat, who refused to say that he would respect the results of this election. Now, that is a direct threat to our democracy.”
Later, during a rally at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she said, “To say you won’t respect the results of the election, that is a direct threat to our democracy.”
Donald Trump refused to say that he’d respect the results of this election.
That’s a direct threat to our democracy.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 24, 2016
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the things that makes America America,” she said, adding a little ding aimed at Trump, “Look, some people are just sore losers.” Today she’s singing a much different tune.
“If we don’t figure out what they did to us and take adequate steps to prevent it, they’re only going to get better,” she said this week in reference to Russia’s alleged election interference. “This is the first time we’ve ever been attacked by a foreign adversary and then they suffer no real consequences.”
This is Trump’s gift: His very existence drives people into reversing their position.
We saw a lot of this during the election, when critics and supporters of Bill Clinton’s accusers reversed roles to discuss the many allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against Trump.
Instead of believing the accusers, as they did for Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick, Trump’s supporters questioned and sought discredit his alleged victims. In contrast, many of the same people who’ve spent decades dismissing Bill Clinton’s accusers, were quick to prop up Trump’s, proclaiming loudly that victims have the right to be heard.
But as amazing as those flip-flops were, it’s hard to beat Clinton reversing these last few months on her claim that it’s dangerous and downright undemocratic to question the legitimacy of a presidential election.
See, back when she thought she was going to win, it was bad to question the election. But now that she sits idly, her disastrous campaign a punchline, her political influence greatly diminished and former allies abandoning her in droves, she now thinks it’s okay to question whether Trump is a legitimately elected president.
