White House press secretary Josh Earnest downplayed the devastating blow voters sent to President Obama and the Democratic Party in Tuesday’s election, and insisted Wednesday that it is “far too early” to determine what message the electorate was trying to send.
“The results of the election are not even 12 hours old and I think it is far too early, at least for me, to discern exactly what message the voters were trying to send last night,” Earnest told reporters shortly after President Obama had finished congratulating Donald Trump on his unexpected victory.
Earnest acknowledged that there has been “a lot of speculation” about what Tuesday’s election results mean for both parties, though he simultaneously dismissed such chatter as “punditry” from those who had predicted far different results.
“I think it is going to require more than 12 hours of consideration and investigation to get to the bottom of what was actually motivating so many people who cast votes at the polls yesterday,” he said.
In addition to Trump’s sweeping Electoral College victory Tuesday night, Republicans held onto their Senate and House majorities. The GOP has not had unified control of the executive and legislative branches of government since George W. Bush’s presidency, and Republicans say the election repudiated the last eight years of Obama, and the possibility of a Hillary Clinton administration.
