Story highlights
- Donald Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway called members of Clinton's team "bitter"
- Joel Benenson pressed the Trump team to explain who their supporters want "to take America back from"
(CNN)Four weeks after the election, tensions between top operatives at the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns erupted during a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics discussion that was intended to record history by drawing out the internal deliberations of both campaigns.
Facing off at long tables on opposite sides of the room during a two-hour panel, raw emotions on both sides exploded as operatives debated how Trump had won the divisive campaign.
There were periods of calm, substantive discussion about data, metrics and target states, but many moments where tempers flared, with acrimony mirroring the 2016 race. Advisers on the opposing sides shouted over each other. Accusations of lying flew between them. There was lots of eye-rolling on both sides. Operatives snapped at one another for interrupting, as an air of mutual contempt settled within the room. Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway called members of Clinton's team "bitter."
"Hey guys, we won," Conway said at one point, challenging Clinton's team to "accept the results of the election." "He was the better candidate. That's why we won."
But the Clinton team did not back down. Chief Strategist Joel Benenson charged that the Trump campaign was successful, in part, by sending a series of "dog whistles" and messages with racial overtones that appealed to white voters who believed the government favored minorities.
Benenson pressed the Trump team to explain exactly who their supporters want "to take America back from." He disputed the Trump team's argument that his economic message led him to victory. Clinton won a majority of voters who were concerned about the economy, he said, while Trump won more voters who believe minorities are favored in this country.
Clinton Senior Adviser Karen Finney added that Trump had tapped into "underlying cultural anxiety about change that we were not willing to do."
In a key moment that flipped the initial tone from fairly civil to acrimonious, Clinton advisers Jennifer Palmeiri and Finney charged the Trump campaign with providing a platform for white supremacist views by hiring Breitbart Chief Executive Steve Bannon. The Trump team had elevated the so-called alt-right movement into the mainstream, they said, with Palmieri adding that Clinton's speech denouncing the extremist movement was the proudest moment of the campaign.
Photos: In transition: President-elect Trump
President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Martin Luther King III after they met at Trump Tower in New York on Monday, January 16. Afterward, King said the meeting was "constructive" and that the two discussed the importance of voting accessibility. Trump didn't speak to the media about the meeting.
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Photos: In transition: President-elect Trump
Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday, January 11. In his first news conference since winning the election, a combative Trump made clear he will not mute his style when he is inaugurated on January 20. He lashed out at media and political foes alike.
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US Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's nominee for attorney general, is sworn in during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday, January 10. Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling high-level positions for the new administration.
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Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, arrives on Capitol Hill for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday, January 9. Kushner, a 35-year-old businessman-turned-political strategist, will be senior adviser to the president, a senior transition official told CNN.
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Trump gets on an elevator after speaking with reporters at New York's Trump Tower on January 9.
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Trump stands with Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma, Asia's richest man, as they walk to speak with reporters at Trump Tower on January 9. Ma met with Trump to tease plans for creating "one million" jobs in the United States. Trump praised Ma after the meeting as a "great, great entrepreneur and one of the best in the world."
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Trump stands with legendary boxing promoter Don King after meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, December 28. Trump and King met to discuss the relationship between Israel and the United States.
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Trump attends a meeting with Steve Bannon, chief White House strategist and senior counselor, at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Wednesday, December 21. Trump spent the holidays in Mar-a-Lago.
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Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway talks to the press in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Thursday, December 15. Conway, who was Trump's campaign manager, will work in his administration as "counselor to the president," it was announced on Thursday, December 22.
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Photos: In transition: President-elect Trump
Trump meets with technology executives in New York on Wednesday, December 14. From left are Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon; Larry Page, chief executive officer of Google's parent company Alphabet; Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook; and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. The three main areas discussed were jobs, immigration and China, according to a source briefed on the meeting.
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Three of Trump's children -- from left, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric -- attend the meeting with tech leaders on December 14.
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Trump, Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan wave during an event in West Allis, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, December 13. "He's like a fine wine," Trump said of Ryan at the rally, which was part of his "thank you" tour to states that helped him win the election. "Every day that goes by, I get to appreciate his genius more and more."
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Photos: In transition: President-elect Trump
Trump and rapper Kanye West speak to the press after meeting at Trump Tower in New York on December 13. Trump called West a "good man" and told journalists that they have been "friends for a long time." West later tweeted that he met with Trump to discuss "multicultural issues."
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Photos: In transition: President-elect Trump
Trump selected former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, right, to be his nominee for energy secretary, which would make Perry the head of an agency he once suggested he would eliminate.
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Trump has tapped ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as secretary of state, the transition team announced December 13. Tillerson, seen here at a conference in 2015, has no formal foreign-policy experience, but he has built close relationships with many world leaders by closing massive deals across Eurasia and the Middle East on behalf of the world's largest energy company.
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Trump waves during the Army-Navy football game, which was played in Baltimore on Saturday, December 10.
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Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick for education secretary, speaks during an event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday, December 9.
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Trump shakes hands with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad at an event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, December 8. Trump re-introduced Branstad as his pick for US ambassador to China.
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Trump greets retired Marine Gen. James Mattis at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, December 6. Trump said he would nominate Mattis as his defense secretary.
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Trump speaks to members of the media at Trump Tower in New York on December 6.
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Trump visits the Carrier air-conditioning company in Indianapolis on Thursday, December 1. Carrier announced that it had reached a deal with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is currently governor of Indiana, to keep about 1,000 of 1,400 jobs at its Indianapolis plant rather than move them to Mexico. The Carrier plant had been a theme of Trump's campaign promise to prevent more jobs from being outsourced to other countries.
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Trump and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney share a meal in New York on Tuesday, November 29. Romney was reportedly in the running for secretary of state.
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Trump waves to a crowd at The New York Times building after meeting with some of the newspaper's reporters, editors and columnists on Tuesday, November 22. Six takeaways from the meeting
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Trump is flanked by Pence and Romney after a meeting in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, on Saturday, November 19.
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"60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl interviews Trump and his family at his New York home on Friday, November 11. It was Trump's first television interview since the election.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan shows Trump and his wife, Melania, the Speaker's Balcony at the US Capitol on Thursday, November 10.
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Ryan listens as Trump speaks to the press at the US Capitol on November 10. Trump talked about his eagerness to join forces with Ryan to begin implementing new policies.
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Trump walks with his wife and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after a meeting at the US Capitol on November 10.
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Trump shakes hands with President Barack Obama following a meeting in the Oval Office on November 10. Obama told his successor that he wanted him to succeed and would do everything he could to ensure a smooth transition.
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Trump delivers his acceptance speech during his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel on Wednesday, November 9.
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"Are you going look me in the face and say I provided a platform for white supremacists?" Kellyanne Conway asked incredulously. Both Palmieri and Finney nodded and said "yes."
"I would rather lose than win the way you did," Palmieri said.
"You guys are pathetic," Trump adviser David Bossie replied, accusing them of a smear campaign against Bannon.
Bossie argued that Clinton lost not because of headwinds, but because of distrust due to a long series of "self-inflicted wounds" dating back to the 1990s from the Whitewater scandal to the missing files at the Rose Law Firm.
Bossie and Conway charged that the Clinton campaign was in denial about why their candidate had lost -- in part their refusal to acknowledge that she was a "bad candidate."
Clinton adviser Mandy Grunwald said the Trump campaign had operated in the world of "dark arts." As an example, she flashed the final issue of the National Enquirer, essentially describing Clinton as a corrupt criminal who should be thrown in jail.
"I don't think you guys give yourself enough credit for the negative campaign you ran," Grunwald said. "I think it was an incredibly effective negative campaign, and you guys don't get credit for it."
Clnton campaign joins recount efforts 01:52
To the irritation of Trump officials, the Clinton team argued that the results have not given Trump a mandate to govern. At one point when Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio was saying that the Clinton campaign had failed to understand the fact that 70% of voters believed the country was on the wrong track, her Campaign Manager Robby Mook interrupted: "We won the popular vote."
Over the course of the two-day conference, the Clinton team attributed their general election loss to a myriad of factors. They said they faced huge headwinds within the electorate because of the strong desire for change: "We underestimated the force of that wind of change," Mook said.
But they focused repeatedly on what they viewed as the destructive impact of FBI Director James Comey's press conference and his two letters about the investigation into Clinton's emails on her private server. That hurt Clinton particularly among suburban women and younger voters in the final days, they said.
'You guys took everything Donald Trump said so literally'
Clinton advisers also blamed unfair media coverage -- noting that it was a struggle every day to get Clinton's message to break through in a media environment dominated by Trump.
There was also fierce criticism of the press by the Trump campaign. One of the odder complaints came from former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
"This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything Donald Trump said so literally," Lewandowski said. "The American people didn't. They understood it. They understood sometimes when you have a conversation with people, whether it's around the dinner table or at a bar, you're going to say things and sometimes you don't have all the facts to back it up."
Several Clinton advisers also argued that there was an unfair "double standard" for Clinton within the press that was driven partly by her gender. Mook noted that the press often focused on how she delivered her message in a way that they would not have been scrutinized in a male candidate.
"She's been an uncomfortable presence for a long time" by breaking gender barriers, Palmieri said.
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
President-elect Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for years. From developing real estate and producing and starring in TV shows, he became a celebrity long before winning the White House.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump at age 4. He was born in 1946 to Fred and Mary Trump in New York City. His father was a real estate developer.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump, left, in a family photo. He was the second-youngest of five children.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump, center, stands at attention during his senior year at the New York Military Academy in 1964.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump, center, wears a baseball uniform at the New York Military Academy in 1964. After he graduated from the boarding school, he went to college. He started at Fordham University before transferring and later graduating from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump stands with Alfred Eisenpreis, New York's economic development administrator, in 1976 while they look at a sketch of a new 1,400-room renovation project of the Commodore Hotel. After graduating college in 1968, Trump worked with his father on developments in Queens and Brooklyn before purchasing or building multiple properties in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Those properties included Trump Tower in New York and Trump Plaza and multiple casinos in Atlantic City.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump attends an event to mark the start of construction of the New York Convention Center in 1979.
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Trump wears a hard hat at the Trump Tower construction site in New York in 1980.
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Trump was married to Ivana Zelnicek Trump from 1977 to 1990, when they divorced. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
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The Trump family, circa 1986.
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Trump uses his personal helicopter to get around New York in 1987.
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Trump stands in the atrium of the Trump Tower.
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Trump attends the opening of his new Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1989.
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Trump signs his second book, "Trump: Surviving at the Top," in 1990. Trump has published at least 16 other books, including "The Art of the Deal" and "The America We Deserve."
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump and singer Michael Jackson pose for a photo before traveling to visit Ryan White, a young child with AIDS, in 1990.
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Trump dips his second wife, Marla Maples, after the couple married in a private ceremony in New York in December 1993. The couple divorced in 1999 and had one daughter together, Tiffany.
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Trump putts a golf ball in his New York office in 1998.
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An advertisement for the television show "The Apprentice" hangs at Trump Tower in 2004. The show launched in January of that year. In January 2008, the show returned as "Celebrity Apprentice."
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
A 12-inch talking Trump doll is on display at a toy store in New York in September 2004.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump attends a news conference in 2005 that announced the establishment of Trump University. From 2005 until it closed in 2010, Trump University had about 10,000 people sign up for a program that promised success in real estate. Three separate lawsuits -- two class-action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general -- argued that the program was mired in fraud and deception. Trump's camp rejected the suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that the New York case against him is politically motivated.
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Trump attends the U.S. Open tennis tournament with his third wife, Melania Knauss-Trump, and their son, Barron, in 2006. Trump and Knauss married in 2005.
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Trump wrestles with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania in 2007. Trump has close ties with the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon.
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For "The Apprentice," Trump was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2007.
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Trump appears on the set of "The Celebrity Apprentice" with two of his children -- Donald Jr. and Ivanka -- in 2009.
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Trump poses with Miss Universe contestants in 2011. Trump had been executive producer of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants since 1996.
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In 2012, Trump announces his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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Trump speaks in Sarasota, Florida, after accepting the Statesman of the Year Award at the Sarasota GOP dinner in August 2012. It was shortly before the Republican National Convention in nearby Tampa.
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Trump appears on stage with singer Nick Jonas and television personality Giuliana Rancic during the 2013 Miss USA pageant.
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In June 2015, during a speech from Trump Tower, Trump announced that he was running for President. He said he would give up "The Apprentice" to run.
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Trump -- flanked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, left, and Ted Cruz -- speaks during a CNN debate in Miami on March 10. Trump dominated the GOP primaries and emerged as the presumptive nominee in May.
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The Trump family poses for a photo in New York in April.
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Trump speaks during a campaign event in Evansville, Indiana, on April 28. After Trump won the Indiana primary, his last two competitors dropped out of the GOP race.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, accepting the party's nomination for President. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people."
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Trump faces Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, which took place in Hempstead, New York, in September.
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Trump apologizes in a video, posted to his Twitter account in October, for vulgar and sexually aggressive remarks he made a decade ago regarding women. "I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, referring to lewd comments he made during a previously unaired taping of "Access Hollywood." Multiple Republican leaders rescinded their endorsements of Trump after the footage was released.
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Trump walks on stage with his family after he was declared the election winner on November 9. "Ours was not a campaign, but rather, an incredible and great movement," he told his supporters in New York.
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Trump is joined by his family as he is sworn in as President on January 20.
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When the Clinton team was asked whether they would have done anything differently, Palmieri said one mistake was not arguing for a fourth debate shortly before the election. When Clinton wasn't on stage with Trump, it was difficult for her message to break through, she said -- setting up a dynamic of "Hillary versus Hillary."
"What hurt us was (the Trump campaign) coming after her or the press picking at us," Palmieri said.
Clinton's advisers said they were harmed by Russians meddling in the election and the "drip, drip, drip" of news about Hillary Clinton's emails, followed by the hacking of John Podesta's emails that revealed internal campaign deliberations. They also acknowledged that they did not perform as well as they needed to among younger voters; one key reason for that, they said, was Comey's interference in the election.
"Undecided voters didn't break our way," Mook said of Election Night. "That Comey letter had a huge effect," he said, calling it "probably a game-changer."
Both Mook and Benenson said while the race was incredibly fluid in the final weeks, they were closely watching both Trump and Clinton defectors -- voters who were considering third party candidates.
In the final weeks before Election Day, they were coming home -- first to Trump and then to Clinton. But the first Comey letter 11 days before the election stalled that movement back to Clinton, Benenson said.
"Those last 11 days we couldn't get them back," he said.
Asked about the heated back-and-forths, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz Friday said he was "not surprised" that the program was "particularly" feisty." Schultz added that he was also "not sure that's a bad thing," saying that it's important to look back at the decisions of a campaign.
"It's ok to be candid and to honestly look back at the decisions you made, the decisions your opponent made and how that played out in the context of the race when you're not in the heat of it," Schultz said.
Schultz also downplayed stark campaign trail rhetoric between Obama and Trump.
"I think that the President did speak out on the trail early and often about his profound differences with Mr. Trump," Schultz said. "But Mr. Trump won. He won the election on November 8th. The President has made clear that our priority in light of that election is to provide for a seamless transition of power."
