Trump issued a flurry of tweets last night and early this morning, accusing Hillary Clinton of hypocrisy for joining Jill Stein’s recount in Wisconsin and potentially other states, since during the campaign Clinton had criticized Trump for suggesting he wouldn’t concede if she won.
Baloney, for 4 reasons:
1. The issue during the campaign wasn't whether Trump would forfeit his right to participate in recounts or contest a close result; it was whether he would commit to accepting the election result, even where the margin wasn’t even close. He said the election was going to be stolen from him regardless of what the actual result showed, claiming there would be massive election fraud even before it was even alleged to have occurred.
2. At an October 20 rally, Trump backed away from this and said he was only preserving his right to a recount in a close result. “If Al Gore or George Bush had agreed three weeks before the election to concede the results and waive their right to a legal challenge or a recount, then there would be no Supreme Court case and no Gore v. Bush." Well then, fine. He should have no trouble with the recount that Jill Stein and Hillary Clinton are now doing.
3. Trump won the election because he carried three critical Rust Belt states by about 1 point or less -- Wisconsin by 0.8 percent, Michigan by 0.2 percent and Pennsylvania by 1.1 percent. If Clinton had won by such close margins, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Trump to participate in recounts in one or more of those states.
