This Didn't Age Well

If He Loses, Trump Will Concede Gracefully - WSJ
www.wsj.com
By
Mick Mulvaney
Nov. 7, 2020

I’ve been asked the same question at least a hundred times in the past week: If the president loses, will he participate in a peaceful transition of power?

The question probably says as much about those asking it as the answer does about President Trump. Most of the inquirers are the same people who still don’t understand why nearly half the country voted for Mr. Trump. They still wonder if he somehow cheated his way into office. They still think he should’ve been impeached, believe the polls, and consider the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN reliable sources.

But, I am happy to answer: Yes.
I don’t pretend, simply because I served as White House chief of staff for 15 months, to know the president more deeply than anyone. But I’m familiar with his manner and style and know a little about how he thinks.

Early in my term as chief, we were mired in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The administration was pilloried in the press nightly, and while that was nothing new, we were eager to fight back. The team devised several ideas about how to reclaim the momentum.

A few that we floated to Mr. Trump would’ve had him publicly confront Speaker Nancy Pelosi about her decision to leave town instead of continue discussions. He was livid: “Dammit, Mick, I am the president of the United States. I am not going to pull off that kind of petty crap.”
His response surprised me. We’d tailored several of our options to Trump the Showman. What we got instead was Trump the President.

Mr. Trump instead addressed the nation from the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. It was the only time he did so during my tenure (and one of only a few times in his). It was a sober message on a serious topic at a tense time. It was delivered from a location that conveys gravitas in a way few others can. There’s no denying it was appropriate for the moment.

The president knew the time for showmanship and the time for serious discussion. And no occasion is more fit for seriousness than a national transition of power at the highest levels.

The president will fight like a gladiator until the election is conclusively determined, and Joe Biden would do the same—not only because it’s their nature, but also because there is so much at stake. More than 150 million Americans registered their preference for the outcome of the election, and all of them are counting on “their” man to do everything he legally can to prevail. Neither candidate is going to throw his hands up before the process is complete and say “Oh, well, I tried.”

Nor should they. Voters need this election to be fully litigated. Whoever occupies the presidency cannot have rumors floating around for the next four years about dead people voting or ballot dumps in the middle of the night. The U.S. needs to know that the winner is actually the winner.

And once Americans know that, I have every expectation that Mr. Trump will be, act and speak like a great president should—win or lose.