There Is a Difference Between Questioning the Legitimacy of an Election and Contesting It
CNN’s Chris Cillizza is out with one of his half-baked hot takes.
Cillizza just claimed “Hillary Clinton just floated the possibility of contesting the 2016 election.”
Did she?
Cillizza writes that “in an interview Monday with NPR’s Terry Gross, Clinton [is] not only questioning the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency but refusing to rule out the possibility of contesting the results if Russian collusion is proven by special counsel Bob Mueller.”
He adds:
Here’s the full text of the back-and-forth, courtesy of CNN’s Dan Merica:Gross: I want to get back to the question, would you completely rule out questioning the legitimacy of this election if we learn that the Russian interference in the election is even deeper than we know now?Clinton: No. I would not. I would say —
Gross: You’re not going to rule it out?Clinton: No, I wouldn’t rule it out.!!!!This a big deal. The 2016 Democratic nominee, who won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, is expressly leaving open the possibility that she would pursue legal action to invalidate the last presidential election.
I’ve paid close attention to what Clinton’s been saying since she lost the election and I have never heard her broach the possibility of a formal challenge of the results.
If only Cillizza had bothered to read NPR’s reporting, he would have found this following that excerpt where she says she “would not” rule out questioning the legitimacy of this election.
Here’s the next part of the NPR transcript:
Gross: So what are the means, like, this is totally unprecedented in every way —
Clinton: It is.
Gross:Â What would be the means to challenge it, if you thought it should be challenged?
Clinton:Â Basically I don’t believe there are. There are scholars, academics, who have arguments that it would be, but I don’t think they’re on strong ground. But people are making those arguments. I just don’t think we have a mechanism.
There is a difference between questioning the legitimacy of an election and contesting it.
She outright says, “I just don’t think we have a mechanism” to contest it.
Frankly, if it turns out that Trump’s win was illegitimate, if he became president illegally, perhaps Clinton should try to formally contest the election. I don’t know. But that’s not the point.
Clinton did not “float the possibility of contesting the 2016 election,” all she did was say she’s reserving the right to question the legitimacy of the election.
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