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Chris Cillizza Explains Why He Thinks 2024 Election Was ‘Much More Important’ Than 2016

Screenshot/YouTube/ To the Contrary With Charlie Sykes

NewsNation political contributor Chris Cillizza explained Tuesday that the 2024 presidential election was “more important” than 2016 because of what it showed about the American people and how they felt about liberal positions.

President Donald Trump won the 2016 election as an outsider businessman who had never served in public office, defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and shocking the political and media establishment. Cillizza, on “To the Contrary With Charlie Sykes,” said Americans knew exactly what they were voting for in 2024 due to Trump already serving a term as president.

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“I think a lot of people, if you say like, ‘What’s the most important election in the last 25 years?’ they’ll probably say 2016. Some people might say ’08 with Obama,” Cillizza said. “But I think with Trump getting elected, they won’t. They’ll say 2016 because it was such a surprise, right? Everyone thought Hillary was going to win, Trump wins. I actually think 2024 is much more important.”

Cillizza asserted the 2016 election results made sense in hindsight due to Americans’ hatred of the political establishment and their lack of knowledge about Trump.

“In retrospect, I now kind of understand the 2016 election, right? We had gone [George H. W.] Bush, [Bill] Clinton, [George W.] Bush, [Barack] Obama and we’re going to go back to Clinton. People hated politics,” he said. “They don’t like political dynasties. They think everything is broken. And they don’t really know that much about Donald Trump. Like, yeah, he’s maybe not their exact cup of tea stylistically or whatever, but he’s an outsider. Okay, so I kind of understand that vote.”

Cillizza noted 2024 was significantly different from 2016 because Americans knew who Trump was and how he governed.

“In 2024, it is impossible [given] his ubiquity — it is impossible for you to go into that ballot box and be like, ‘I just don’t know what I’m getting with Donald Trump.’ No, it’s impossible,” he said. “This was a proactive vote for what he represented … And that, to me, makes 2024 much more critical, because that says there was no like, ‘Well, maybe he’ll be different.'”

“This is: ‘I want that’ or … ‘I may not want either of them, but I want that more than woke communist leftist trans [former Vice President] Kamala Harris vote,'” he continued. “And that, to me, makes 2024 more important … it holds a mirror up to us and says what you thought America was is not what a majority of people think America is.”

Characterizing Harris and the Democratic Party as too far left on transgender policy helped Trump and Republican candidates down the ballot during the 2024 election, according to multiple reports.

Harris also backed many left-wing policies during her 2020 presidential run, such as a fracking ban, mandatory federal gun buybacks and the abolition of private health insurance.

The majority of registered voters, 54%, favored Trump over Harris on handling the economy, which was ranked as the primary issue in the election, according to a Gallup poll published in October.