The Guardian reports that President-elect Trump is "softening" his tone now that the presidential election - what I would describe as the vitriolic in our lifetimes - is over.
It doesn't look like "Lock her up!" is on his mind anymore, although it thrilled his followers.
And "repeal and replace" looks more like "amend and allow" when it comes to Obamacare.
The president-elect, who had said he would “immediately repeal and replace” Obamacare after taking office, told the Wall Street Journal he might instead seek to reform the policy, keeping the ban on insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
He said he would also look to retain the provision that allowed young adults to be insured on their parents’ policies, adding that he had been convinced of the virtues of the two points in his meeting with Barack Obama on Thursday.
Trump and his family also filmed an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes to be broadcast on Sunday. The president-elect said he would amend, or repeal and replace Obamacare without any gaps in healthcare provision. “It will be just fine. It’s what I do. I do a good job and I know how to do this stuff,” he told Lesley Stahl.
Having called Clinton a “nasty woman” and “crooked” during the campaign, Trump struck a conciliatory tone towards his former opponent in both interviews. The Wall Street Journal asked about campaign promises to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against his Democratic rival over her use of a private email server to conduct official business as secretary of state.
“It’s not something I’ve given a lot of thought, because I want to solve healthcare, jobs, border control, tax reform,” Trump said. The statement may anger the president-elect’s core supporters, many of whom chanted “lock her up, lock her up,” at campaign rallies.
He told 60 Minutes the call in which Clinton conceded the election was “lovely”, adding: “It was a tough call for her, I can imagine ... She couldn’t have been nicer. She just said ‘congratulations Donald, well done’.”
“She’s very strong and very smart,” he said, adding that Bill Clinton had also called. “He couldn’t have been more gracious. He said it was an amazing run. One of the most amazing he had ever seen,” Trump said of the former president.
Was all that infamous bluster an act? A means to an end?
Or did he never really think he would win, and now realizes he has to govern?
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