Hillary Clinton had concession speech ready... but she was too upset to give it

Bitter blow: Hillary Clinton
Gerry Broome/AP
David Gardner11 November 2016

Hillary Clinton had her concession speech prepared - she just never thought she’d need to read it out loud.

And when the moment came early today to admit that her lifelong dream of becoming America’s first woman president had been dashed, she simply couldn’t face the world.

The devastated Democratic candidate remained locked in her New York hotel room as it became clear that her glass ceiling had come crashing down around her.

And she was left ruing what could have been while Donald Trump was celebrating his unlikely election day triumph on stage at another hotel just two miles across Manhattan.

The party had gone flat several hours earlier at New York’s Javits Centre, where, if the pollsters were to be believed, Mrs Clinton was a sure fire bet to celebrate a runaway victory.

The steady stream of states falling to her Republican rival meant that the votes being counted in Mrs Clinton’s favour in the early hours were gradually proving useless. They were simply not enough.

Shortly after Mr Trump’s tally passed the 270 electoral votes required for victory, she dispatched campaign manager John Podesta to the Javits Centre to inform her supporters that she would not be making any speeches until the morning, but not to give up hope.

‘It’s been a long night and it’s been a long campaign, but we can wait a little longer,’ he said. ‘They are still counting votes and every state should count so we’re not going to have anything else to say tonight. We will have more to say tomorrow.

Winning feeling: Donald Trump
Mike Segar/Reuters

‘I want every person in the country to know that your voices and your enthusiasm mean so much to her. We are so proud of you and we are so proud of her.

‘I have to say, good night, we will have more to say. Let’s get these votes counted and let’s bring this thing home,’ he added.

But if the former First Lady did hold out any hope of coming back from the dead, it didn’t last for long.

Perhaps stung by criticism that she was being ‘ungracious’ by refusing to publicly concede defeat, she called Mr Trump at 2.30am to accept the inevitable.

Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, had claimed angrily that Mrs Clinton was neglecting her duty by not publicly congratulating the victor.

‘She owes it to the American people to make a speech,’ he insisted. ‘We have 99.9 per cent of these votes counted. We are waiting for a small fraction still to be counted. This is not bringing the country together, this is absurd.

‘If this was Donald Trump doing this, the hypocrisy would be so outrageous. She should come out and say, support Donald Trump.’

At the Javits Centre - a steel and glass structure the campaign chose for its symbolism in anticipation that the Democratic nominee would become the first woman to ‘shatter the highest, hardest glass ceiling’ - Clinton supporters were stunned and tearful.

Singer Katy Perry, who performed at a recent Clinton rally, took to the stage as the results began to go against the Democratic candidate. ‘If you’re in a state where the polls are still open you must vote for Hillary Clinton tonight,’ she pleaded.

Jubilant Donald Trump supporters

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Liz Reisman, 50, sat on a stairway with her daughter. ‘We’re going to be living in the 1950s again, we’re going back in time. There are no words,’ she said.

Standing with red-rimmed eyes, Dana Vance,27, said: ‘It’s really, really heartbreaking. I’ve seen so many little girls … defeated.’

‘It wasn’t cool to be a racist when Barack Obama was elected, and now it’s all coming out,’ Nancy Gallagher, a 58-year-old from New York, told USA Today. Her friend, 53-year-old Pam Batalis, added: ‘He made American hate again - you can use that.’

Aides said Mrs Clinton will speak later on Wednesday.

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