In July more police shootings and the shooting of police officers took the Orlando event’s place in the headlines. On the evening of July 7, a sniper shot and killed four police officers and a rapid transit officer and wounded several others in downtown Dallas at the close of a peaceful protest against the shootings earlier in the week of African American men by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban Saint Paul, Minnesota. Before being killed by a robot-detonated explosive, the shooter told negotiators that he was upset by recent police shootings. Later in July three law-enforcement officers were shot and killed and three more wounded in Baton Rouge in another retaliatory incident.
The Donald Trump administration
The campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination
Against this backdrop the campaign for the 2016 election unfolded with the primary battles of both parties largely shaped by unlikely insurgent populist candidates—businessman and reality TV star turned Republican Donald Trump and democratic socialist U.S. senator turned Democrat Bernie Sanders. Trump rose to the top of an extremely crowded Republican field, winning primary after primary by employing unfiltered—often outlandish—personal attacks on his rivals in debate, in media interviews, and especially on Twitter. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio were particular targets of Trump’s vitriol before he turned it on the last two candidates blocking his path to the nomination, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Because Trump’s critique was also aimed at the Republican establishment, not only was there an effort by elements of that establishment to stifle his candidacy, but he also had trouble gaining the support of a number of key Republican leaders once he had secured the party’s nomination.
Trump, DonaldDonald Trump.© Gino Santa Maria/Shutterstock.com
Nonetheless, Trump won fervid popular support, especially among blue-collar white men, with his promise to return America to greatness by combating illegal immigration, negotiating beneficial trade deals, taking a tough economic stance against China, beefing up the military, obliterating ISIL, and eschewing political correctness. In the process, Trump also stirred hostile reaction by proposing highly controversial policies and regularly making inflammatory remarks. Among those policies most derided by his critics were his promises to build a wall between Mexico and the United States and to ban Muslims from entering the country. In addition, he was taken to task by opponents for his disparaging comments about Mexicans, remarks to and regarding women that were widely perceived as offensive, and his impugning of the character of the Muslim American parents of a U.S. soldier killed in combat after the soldier’s father was critical of Trump in a speech during the Democratic National Convention.
The campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination
On the road to that convention, front-runner Hillary Clinton was pushed to the limit by the challenge of Vermont Senator Sanders, whose “political revolution” was funded by some seven million mostly small-dollar donations (the average donation was long said to have been $27). Sanders supporters, including a legion of young people, were inspired by his firebrand determination to redress economic inequality, rein in Wall Street, provide single-payer universal health care, introduce tuition-free college education, and reform the political system.
Sanders, BernieBernie Sanders.Gage Skidmore
Having served as first lady, as a U.S. senator for New York, and as secretary of state, Clinton brought a wealth of experience to her candidacy, but for many voters she represented the status quo, even if she offered the potential of breaking the Oval Office’s glass ceiling as the first woman president. She was also dogged by the perception among many in the electorate that she was not trustworthy, partly because of her use of a private server for some of her e-mail during her tenure as secretary of state, an action that earned disapprobation from the FBI after investigation but that was not determined to be illegal.
Clinton entered the convention with over 2,800 delegates—more than the 2,383 needed to nominate—but her big advantage over Sanders, who had nearly 1,900 delegates, came from some 600 superdelegates in her column. Sanders could count on only about 50 superdelegates, who were not chosen through the primary and caucus process but instead were made up of prominent party members, members of the Democratic National Committee, and major elected officeholders. As the party’s nominee, Clinton sought to reach out to supporters of Sanders, who had left an indelible mark on the party’s platform and pushed Clinton to present herself prominently as a progressive and to shift many of her policies leftward.
Clinton, HillaryHillary Clinton at a campaign rally, 2016.© Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com
Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tape, and the 2016 general election campaign
The presidential general election campaign was among the most rancorous in recent history, with Clinton accusing Trump of being devoid of the temperament and judgment required to serve as president, while Trump argued that Clinton lacked the “stamina” necessary for the office and that she should be jailed for what he claimed was criminal use of her private e-mail server while secretary of state. Together they were among the most unpopular final major-party presidential candidates in U.S. history.
Trump’s comments and attitudes toward women and Clinton’s use of that private e-mail server came back to haunt them as the election campaign wound to a close in October. Early in the month a hot-mic video from an infotainment television program (Access Hollywood) in 2005 surfaced in which Trump boasted to a reporter about sexual exploits that were grounded in predatory behaviour. Trump sought to defuse the onslaught of outrage that followed by characterizing his remarks as “locker-room talk” and denied subsequent allegations by a series of women who claimed that he had sexually assaulted them, but his already low support among women voters continued to wane, and some Republicans began to withdraw their endorsements. Only weeks before the election, FBI Director James Comey announced that the bureau was reviewing additional e-mails related to the Clinton investigation that had been recently discovered, intensifying concerns about her trustworthiness that already plagued her candidacy. Only on the Sunday before the election did Comey announce that no criminal activity by Clinton had been found by this additional investigation.
Trump’s victory and Russian interference in the presidential election
In the weeks before the election, Clinton held a small but steady lead in opinion polling both on the national level and in the battleground states. In the event, however, Trump confounded both pollsters and political pundits by not only winning several crucial battleground states (Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina among them) but also by bettering Clinton in states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that had been longtime Democratic strongholds in presidential elections. In the process, Trump found a path to the more than 270 electoral college votes necessary to be elected as the 45th president, although Clinton won the popular vote by more 2.8 million votes. In the meantime, Republicans held on to their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Pence, Mike; Trump, DonaldPresident-elect Donald Trump (right) shaking hands with running mate Mike Pence prior to Trump's victory speech, November 9, 2016.John Locher/AP Images