A stunned Hillary Clinton had to be urged repeatedly by President Barack Obama to concede defeat on election night, according to a new book recounting the campaign of the first female major party nominee.
The first call came just after 11 p.m. ET when Fox News had called Wisconsin for Republican Donald Trump, according to an excerpt of the book "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign" by reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, quoted by The Washington Post.
Obama thought the election was over after Wisconsin and wanted to avoid a messy recount, according to the Post.
The first call was from White House political director David Simas who told Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, "POTUS doesn't think it's wise to drag this out."
But a clearly stunned Clinton, who had just hours earlier been convinced she was on the verge of becoming the first female president of the United States, could not bring herself to do it.
At that point, Obama himself called directly to Clinton.
"You need to concede," he said.
When that did not work, he called Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta with the same message.
"Give me the phone," Clinton said, and called her opponent, the Post reports, "and said two words she never expected to say: 'Congratulations, Donald.'"
Obama then called back to offer his consolation.
"Mr. President," Clinton told him. "I'm sorry."
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