"Was Trump the rightful winner in 2016? Or illegitimate as it's been said"?
Those are your written words.
I have a definite opinion. The former President was the winner of the 2016 election. Clinton conceded. It's undisputed that the former President won the Electoral College vote. Also undisputed is that he lost the popular vote.
"Rightful" is where there is a gray area. The Manhattan District Attorney's charging premise in the current trial is that the former President, before he was elected, utilized his personal contacts, employees, and resources to kill, neuter, obscure, or promote stories that would illegally advantage his Presidential campaign.
Much of the action was spurred by the leaking of the Access Hollywood tape shortly before the election where Trump was caught on a hot mic talking about his sexual prowess and how he felt quite comfortable "grab[bing] women by the pussy." On the heels of that, Stephanie Clifford (Stormy) threatened to leak her tale of Trump's infidelity- as did Karen McDougal. Trump used his friend, the owner of "The National Enquirer" tabloid newspaper, to purchase rights to these and other stories and shelve them, effectively keeping them from public scrutiny in the days leading up to the election. He also used his NE connection to release bogus, undocumented stories on his party rivals, especially Ted Cruz, who the NE tied to the assassination of JFK.
What effect these actions by the former President had on the 2016 election is hard to gauge. That being said, the actions do call into question how "rightful" his victory was.
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In response to this post by HokieDan95)
Posted: 04/28/2024 at 6:51PM