A sudden era of good feeling often follows a presidential campaign. But would it, could it, in 2024? The candidates and their surrogates didn’t merely spend the last three months calling each other terrible names: They also repeatedly told the American people that a victory by the other would permanently ruin the country.
Yet somehow an uneasy moment of harmony began when Kamala Harris called Donald Trump to concede.
Less than 24 hours after the polls closed, and just one week after condemning him as “a petty tyrant,” the vice president congratulated the president-elect. According to a readout of the call provided by the Harris campaign, she urged him to be “a president for all Americans.” Trump heaped generous praise on an opponent he had condemned previously as “a Marxist.” According to his campaign, he acknowledged “her strength, professionalism, and tenacity.”
If the press releases are to be believed, a feeling of détente broke out over the phone. Said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung, “Both leaders agreed on the importance of unifying the country.”
Even if Republican and Democrat are just going through the motions, their brief civility, after such an uncivil campaign, is a start.
The immediate question: How long will it last?
President Biden also placed a call to the Trump campaign. After expressing a commitment to ensuring “a smooth transition of power” and emphasizing “the importance of working to bring the country together,” he invited the former president to meet with him in the White House. They last spoke after an assassin tried and failed to kill Trump this summer, and they have not met in person since their Atlanta debate set into motion Biden’s forced retirement.
All of this is different from the last campaign. President Trump never conceded the 2020 election, insisting that Democrats had cheated him out of a second term, and he refused to attend Biden’s inauguration. Nonetheless, Trump will return to the White House as only the second president in history to serve non-consecutive terms and the first Republican in two decades to win the popular vote. Republicans say he has a mandate, while Democrats will undergo to inevitable post-mortem to try and determine what went wrong.
Harris sought the high ground during a concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday, telling supporters that although she understood their raw emotions, “we must accept the results of this election.”
“In our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party but to the Constitution,” she said, adding that while her fight for the White House has ended, she will not “concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”
Barack and Michelle Obama also issued a conciliatory statement, as did George W. Bush. The idea, apparently, is to try to restore some normalcy to the process – and perhaps lead by example. In 2017, Trump exchanged pleasant words with President Obama, who welcomed the political novice to the White House and even offered him advice on how to lead the country. Then, as now, nasty attacks were quickly set aside. For instance, Obama made no mention of Trump’s work furthering the “birther conspiracy” that alleged he was not born in America.
“I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds,” Obama told Trump as the two sat side by side in the Oval Office eight years ago.
“We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful, and some difficulties,” Trump replied. “I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel.”
In a subsequent Oval Office meeting on Inauguration Day, Obama and his top advisers hit Trump with a haymaker. FBI Director James Comey, acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and national security advisor Susan Rice – and Vice President Joe Biden – discussed allegations that the Russians had compromising information on the incoming president.
Comey and Democrats later insisted that the Oval Office briefing had proceeded “by the book.” Republicans are convinced to this day that the meeting was an ambush and the first shoe to drop in an elaborate dirty trick designed to undermine the Trump administration before it began.
Those different perceptions remain. Perhaps both sides learned their lesson. Or perhaps not. The Russian collaboration gambit didn’t come to light until a week after Trump’s inauguration when CNN reported that “classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.”
That stink bomb followed a brief period of civility. The lesson here is that Americans who hope the hyper-partisan fever has broken have a right to be optimistic. They should also remember that these episodes of good feelings can prove fleeting.
