Yesterday, Emmanuel Macron trounced the populist far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, to become France’s next President. The election was a blowout, and the latest in a string of repudiations of anti-immigrant candidates in Europe.
So why have voters in France, the Netherlands and Austria rejected populist candidates while voters in the United States embraced the xenophobia of Donald Trump? The authors of a new book about the 2016 Presidential election argue that the answer is, in part, Hillary Clinton. Few candidates in history had the kind of political pedigree that the former Secretary of State brought to the race, but she was unable to overcome chronic and implacable voter distrust.
Jonathan Allen is the head of community and content for Sidewire, and a columnist for Roll Call. He joins us from the studios of NPR in Washington, DC.
Amie Parnes is the senior White House correspondent for The Hill newspaper. She connects with us from WBGO public radio in Newark, NJ.
The two reporters /co-authors join Tom for the hour to describe one of the most consequential cases of woulda, coulda and shoulda in U.S. political history. Their new book is called Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign.
