Retrospection

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Here's a link to CNN's Election Night coverage that someone had recorded and kindly uploaded on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/w31B49W03io

Please tell us the timestamps as to when you ...

a) cast first doubts on Clinton's chances of winning.
b) you began to be running scared.
c) you conceded that Trump was going to be the next president.

[60+ GOP Seats After 2018 GUARANTEED]

MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0CjpKvKMek

FOX News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwfuht66ODk

CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktx8YfHkWU0

ABC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMTxqHLw5I

NBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deh3phE97ok

PBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-gicgoCAY

CBC (Canada): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v13Et4DQK8

RT (Russia Today): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vy6UpQeeL8

Fox Business (only goes up to 1AM though unfortunately): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TQotoGx6_E

TIME STAMPS (all eastern time):

6PM - Everyone kept talking about exit polls and huge Democrat turnout. My morale is shot. Frank Luntz said he "saw the numbers" and was 100% sure "Clinton would win." When he referred to "the numbers" I thought he was referring to actual vote counts, not exit polls.

https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz/status/796136199706574848

I mentally prepare myself for a Clinton win.

7PM - Saw how well he was doing in Kentucky and Indiana, and with Indiana being called so early I think "Wow he's not doing bad at all." However, the Georgia exit poll showing it 48-47 once again dampens my mood. 7PM-8PM is pretty much a blur though because it was so early and the numbers didn't mean much.

8PM - Florida closes and Clinton leads by 2. I kept reminding myself not to forget the panhandle but the hype over Broward and Palm Beach get to me so I ignore election coverage for 30 minutes to go get something to eat. I think Clinton has this won.

8:30PM - I return, and start eating, but notice Trump barely leads in Florida but I kept remembering Broward, but I notice something is different. However she still leads in North Carolina and Ohio, so I still think she squeaks out a win so I eat without paying attention.

9:00PM - This is when things start to change. If you look at nearly all the coverage - whether it's Fox, PBS, or CNN - this is when the pundits start to say "I think Trump can actually win now." My mood changes from "awe man oh well" to "Wow can he actually do it?"

For example: Chris Wallace famously says "I am now starting to think Donald Trump can actually be our next President" and David Brooks on PBS says "Can you see how he gets to 270 now? Yeah, I can see it."

Liberal anchors especially on MSNBC start to get nervous right after 9.

9:30PM - Trump takes significant leads in Ohio and North Carolina. Is leading in Michigan. For the first time in the entire election, Trump takes the lead in NYT's Upshot (this is when the streams crossed). Broward is in and Trump is still winning Florida. I go from "Wow can he actually do it?" to "Wow he actually will do it!!!! Holy crap!!!"

I knew he would lose Virginia, but the fact he was still ahead at this time gave me hope.

10:50PM - Trump hits 90%+ in NYT's Upshot, and 70%+ on 538, all networks have called Ohio, Fox has called North Carolina and AP has called Florida. It's all but won now - why? He now leads in Wisconsin and Michigan. I remember screaming to my brother "WIIII-SSSCCCOOONNN-SSSIIIN!!!!!!!" every time they showed him leading it. That one took me by surprise. I expected him to win Virginia before Wisconsin!

11:30PM - All networks have called North Carolina and Florida, and most have called Iowa. But the biggest shock: Fox calls Wisconsin. Although other networks wouldn't call Wisconsin for another 3 hours the NYT Upshot has him at 95%< to win Wisconsin and to win the election period. I go nuts.

12:15AM - Trump takes the lead in PENNSYLVANIA. And he's still leading Michigan. This is when I knew it was 100% over.

1:35AM - the AP calls Pennsylvania, effectively cutting off any path to 270 for Clinton. However, only Fox has still called Wisconsin.

I now understand - the networks are Karl Roving. They're doing what Rove did in 2012 over Ohio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TwuR0jCavk

They don't want to call Wisconsin because that effectively means Trump has won. I thought they were waiting for Milwaukee to dump their votes before calling it but Milwaukee did that by 1AM and no networks or the AP would call it! I called Wisconsin at 1:08AM.

1:45AM - it's weird, but all print publications have called Pennsylvania, but no networks have. Not even Fox News. Then there's a glitch and PA goes from 99% to 89% precincts reporting, but the AP and NYT stand by their call.

2:05AM - Podesta comes out, I laugh, and then find irony that Clinton was preparing to challenge the results. Imagine if Trump did this? He would've got ripped.

2:30AM - I am getting super tired (11:30PM in California) and kinda impatient. But then BOOM the AP finally calls Wisconsin. I go on Twitter to see "President-Elect Trump" trending. I am in complete disbelief. I drink beer for the first time in 5 years (I don't drink much).

2:40AM - Fox News FINALLY calls Pennsylvania and it's reported by NBC that Clinton has conceded over the phone. I go nuts, and barely stay awake for his victory speech. I only sleep for 5 hours to see reactions.

Overall, it was probably the greatest night of my life. I still remember it vividly. I still remember screaming "WISCONSIN!!!" and "MICHIGAN!!!!" 30 times in the night when it showed he was KEEPING his leads in those states.

One thing I hate is that aside from Fox News and CNN, all other networks showed the percentages rounded to a whole number instead of with decimals. So for example, CBS, NBC and ABC would show Trump lead 48-47 in a state instead of 48.2-46.9 or 47.7-47.3. And most of the networks aside from Fox News did NOT show what time it was.

So for because Fox News/Business had the time and showed decimals in their percentages, in addition to having all the states on their ticker I consider it my favorite coverage.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

I did not believe Trump would win until he was firmly ahead in Pennsylvania.

It was something I had to see to believe.  I did not believe that a candidate so consistently behind in the polls would prevail over a candidate, albeit with many flaws, who was ahead in every poll, and in every EV projection.

The ELECTION DAY voters had heard Comey's second "All Clear" on Hillary, and they rendered their verdict.  I'm sure Hillary had the advantage in early voting, so what does it say that she didn't have the advantage on Election Day voters?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0CjpKvKMek

FOX News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwfuht66ODk

CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktx8YfHkWU0

ABC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMTxqHLw5I

NBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deh3phE97ok

PBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-gicgoCAY

CBC (Canada): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v13Et4DQK8

RT (Russia Today): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vy6UpQeeL8

Fox Business (only goes up to 1AM though unfortunately): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TQotoGx6_E

If we go international, here is the German completion:

ARD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLNTpvegkA0

SPIEGEL TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNhVcotr9I

The taxpayer-funded government TV station ZDF had its Election Night coverage, which some YouTuber kindly uploaded, deleted.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Here's BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LK3lE-HFp8&t=29419s

[OSR stands with Israel]

For me it was like this:


9:15 ET : I began to cast doubts over whether Clinton can win or not

10:25 ET(Right after Ohio was called):  I started to get think Trump was the favorite at that point

When Florida was called- Thats when I thought it was all over

[60+ GOP Seats After 2018 GUARANTEED]

MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0CjpKvKMek

FOX News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwfuht66ODk

CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktx8YfHkWU0

ABC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMTxqHLw5I

NBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deh3phE97ok

PBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-gicgoCAY

CBC (Canada): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v13Et4DQK8

RT (Russia Today): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vy6UpQeeL8

Fox Business (only goes up to 1AM though unfortunately): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TQotoGx6_E

If we go international, here is the German completion:

ARD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLNTpvegkA0

SPIEGEL TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNhVcotr9I

The taxpayer-funded government TV station ZDF had its Election Night coverage, which some YouTuber kindly uploaded, deleted.

I checked out the Spiegel and immediately I got Steve Schmidt saying "And soon Trump will be elected President of the United States" and I get to see the reaction of the Clinton camp. Nice!

Anyone got the video of the two camps? Just raw footage? Closest I get is from Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSBd64a---c

My favorite periods of time to watch these are from 8:00PM-10:00PM when they think Clinton is going to win, to slowly being skeptical, to now saying they can see Trump will win, to thinking Trump is going to win. Then 1:30AM-his victory.

It got annoying how the Big 5 (even Fox kind of) and AP waited so long to call the election though! Fox called Wisconsin at 11:30PM, and AP called Pennsylvania at 1:35AM. So the election should have been called by 1:35AM-2AM. I wonder if she STILL would've sent Podesta out had the election been called from 1:35AM-2AM?

[60+ GOP Seats After 2018 GUARANTEED]

Here's BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LK3lE-HFp8&t=29419s

Sky Nes (British): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ4IOXU0A4E

ITV (British): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWfkMYgZQQ

Nigerian coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUa1w-TMrys

The Blaze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loTUFTYSBZ4

This is one of my favorites. For the first 3 hours it's all talk about the future of the GOP and how to deal with a Clinton Presidency, then a light switch hits and Beck is all of a sudden talking about a Trump win lol. Tomi Lahren looked like she wanted to pass out in excitement hahahaha!

The Daily Wire (Ben Shapiro): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar4UuMIZrlQ

Kind of the same as The Blaze except there are a few pro-Trumpers here (Kavlan, Whittle, and a couple others). Ben Shapiro's reactions are priceless especially at 7 hr 28 min when Whittle says "He's the President now......" and Ben Shapiro loses it. Even THAT made me laugh.

Democracy Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHTQgVA9_aM

The Choice (Yahoo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmYW-LCUq8w

And of course, who can forget The Young Turks?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yroj3OyDwRA

The meltdown is stuff of LEGEND. Especially at the 10 hour 4 minute point where Cenk goes into total 100% meltdown mode and immediately declares war on the Democratic party and calls them beyond stupid LOLOLOLOLOL. The build up to his meltdown is just as incredible as the actual meltdown. When he goes on about Progressives losing and Republican SCOTUS obstructionism then he just goes nuts. Man I could watch it every day!

The only thing that sucks is like Fox Business the coverage ends at about 1AM. Anyone got the TYT election night coverage from 1AM-3AM? Thanks!

ETA:  Anyone have any coverage for 2012? All I can find is MSNBC 2012 election coverage. I have been desperately searching for Fox News so I can see the meltdown after 11PM - anyone got that? Not just Karl Rove, but the entire meltdown.

CNN would be nice too. All I can find is CNN coverage from 10:30PM to Obama's win.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

CNN would be nice too. All I can find is CNN coverage from 10:30PM to Obama's win.

Thanks for your detailed list, cat!
Do you happen to have the Chinese and Japanese Election Night coverage, too?

I can't find the whole 2012 CNN live coverage, but a user called Absolutely uploaded some long clips about the election:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U_3jjZvziE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWYQxM4GMPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Dix9py_p8

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

10:25 ET(Right after Ohio was called):  I started to get think Trump was the favorite at that point

Wasn't it actually foreseeable that Trump would win Ohio? At least all the polls had predicted it.
What rather bothered me was Trump's high lead in Virginia after the polls had closed. I knew Clinton was gonna win that state, but I had assumed by a wider margin. .-\

[TML]

10:25 ET(Right after Ohio was called):  I started to get think Trump was the favorite at that point

Wasn't it actually foreseeable that Trump would win Ohio? At least all the polls had predicted it.
What rather bothered me was Trump's high lead in Virginia after the polls had closed. I knew Clinton was gonna win that state, but I had assumed by a wider margin. .-\

Actually, if you looked at the pattern of election returns in VA over the last 10 years or so, you will notice a similar trend: the Republican candidate takes an early lead as the rural parts of VA report their results first, but near the end, as the DC suburbs report their results, the Democratic candidate overtakes the Republican candidate and ends up winning the state overall. In fact, on election night, the NY Times published an article titled "Don't be Fooled by Virginia" which explains this dynamic.

Regarding Ohio, Trump was favored to win that state, but his projected winning margin was only about 2-4% instead of 8-10%.

[TML]

For me, although I saw Hillary was in trouble in both FL and NC early in the night, I wasn't necessarily worried about those states, since I figured that (1) they could go either way and (2) she could do without them (with a 278-260 margin). In fact, in an article published by FiveThirtyEight several weeks before the election, this was one of the scenarios they had projected (in this scenario, the election isn't called until after midnight). What set off alarm bells for me was Wisconsin & Michigan, both of which I didn't expect Trump to win. When I went to bed at around 9:30 pm that night, I looked at the returns and saw Michigan wasn't in good shape, and when I briefly woke up again a couple of hours later, I saw that Wisconsin had been called for Trump, and that was when I realized that the identity of the winner was pretty much decided.

[krazen1211]

Wisconsin was called for Ron Johnson a few hours before Trump. That and the margins in Iowa clinched the win.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Here's probably the best video of Election Night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9QD2hSPNT0

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

gotta lap up those tears, right boys?

[Skill and Chance]

The incredible thing is that Trump would still have won without Florida.  There would surely  be a Michigan recount circus until mid December, but Clinton would still have lost (on the off chance the recount flipped the outcome, the MI legislature would probably vote to assign the electors to Trump directly and then SCOTUS would have to rule on the validity of that move).

[60+ GOP Seats After 2018 GUARANTEED]

The incredible thing is that Trump would still have won without Florida.  There would surely  be a Michigan recount circus until mid December, but Clinton would still have lost (on the off chance the recount flipped the outcome, the MI legislature would probably vote to assign the electors to Trump directly and then SCOTUS would have to rule on the validity of that move).

Well if Trump lost Florida that means his voters (rural whites) aren't turning out so he'd likely lose Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as well.

[Skill and Chance]

The incredible thing is that Trump would still have won without Florida.  There would surely  be a Michigan recount circus until mid December, but Clinton would still have lost (on the off chance the recount flipped the outcome, the MI legislature would probably vote to assign the electors to Trump directly and then SCOTUS would have to rule on the validity of that move).

Well if Trump lost Florida that means his voters (rural whites) aren't turning out so he'd likely lose Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as well.

Not necessarily.  In Florida, it could just mean that Clinton really was getting 10%+ more of the Hispanic vote than Obama like many pollsters expected to cancel out the rural white swing in the rest of the country.   Clinton's PV margin would be ~3.5%.  Arizona would probably be recount level close as well and Texas would only be a 4-6% Trump win in that world.

[Arbitrage1980]

The incredible thing is that Trump would still have won without Florida.  There would surely  be a Michigan recount circus until mid December, but Clinton would still have lost (on the off chance the recount flipped the outcome, the MI legislature would probably vote to assign the electors to Trump directly and then SCOTUS would have to rule on the validity of that move).

Well if Trump lost Florida that means his voters (rural whites) aren't turning out so he'd likely lose Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as well.

Florida is a lot more conservative than PA, MI, WI. In 2004 Bush won FL by 5% while losing the others. In 2008, Obama won FL by just 2.8% while winning PA by 10.3%, WI by 13.9%, and MI by 16.5%.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

The incredible thing is that Trump would still have won without Florida.  There would surely  be a Michigan recount circus until mid December, but Clinton would still have lost (on the off chance the recount flipped the outcome, the MI legislature would probably vote to assign the electors to Trump directly and then SCOTUS would have to rule on the validity of that move).

Well if Trump lost Florida that means his voters (rural whites) aren't turning out so he'd likely lose Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as well.

Florida is a lot more conservative than
PA, MI, WI. In 2004 Bush won FL by 5% while losing the others. In 2008, Obama won FL by just 2.8% while winning PA by 10.3%, WI by 13.9%, and MI by 16.5%.

The last election was not about conservative/liberal.

[Lechasseur]

I started having doubts on whether Clinton would win or not when I saw Trump was leading in Florida and then I knew Trump had won when Fox News called Wisconsin for him.

[Former Kentuckian]

That night was so surreal that I really don't remember what times I felt what. I just remember that around Midnight I was on the phone with my friend asking, "What the fu-?"

[Statilius the Epicurean]

This was when I realised Trump was going to win (or at least that Clinton was in mega serious trouble), fortunately I have the logs from the Discord channel I was watching election night in:

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That would be around 8:40 EST when a tidal wave of votes from the Florida panhandle was pushing Trump ahead in Florida and the midwest exit polls were coming in showing him beating his polls there.
An hour later:

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as Trump was dominating the returns in OH/WI/MI.
An hour after that:

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And approaching 5am I was a belligerent drunken mess ranting about Brexit and the need to defend the values of 1789 from 4chan /pol/.