It isn’t unusual for supporters of a losing presidential candidate to engage in “if only” fantasies about what would happen if their favored candidate got into office, and dream about how all the country’s problems would be solved if only the election had gone differently.
It’s more unusual for a supposedly respectable news outlet to engage in such fan fiction.
Yet that is precisely what an article in Newsweek did Wednesday. In the article called, “Hillary Clinton Is President in an Alternate Universe, Where America is Great Again.”
The article, covering Twitter accounts that pretend Clinton won in November, engages in its own bag of fiction at the beginning of the article, and it is everything the most diehard #ImWithHer suppoter could wish for, including an imaginary situation in which both Republicans and Democrats rally behind a bill “that will improve upon” ObamaCare.
Hillary Clinton sits behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office, pulling out a large blue binder and a jar of hot peppers—her typical snack as the leader of the free world. It’s 9:30 p.m., and madam president spent the day successfully rallying House Republicans and Democrats behind a health care bill that will improve upon her predecessor’s landmark initiative, the Affordable Care Act. The bill passed an hour ago, but she isn’t anywhere near done fulfilling her duties to the American people.
“I won’t be taking any more calls,” Clinton tells senior adviser Huma Abedin, who is walking toward the door near the grandfather clock. “I want to look through these Russian sanctions one more time. Tell Bill not to wait up for me.”
Abedin, leaning on the half-open door to one of the most powerful rooms in the world, gives one last look at the president before leaving the White House. “You did a good job today, Madam President.”
The article spends much of its time covering the @IfHillaryHad account — a pro-Hillary account that tweets out intelligent and witty “what if” situations, such as this gem:
https://twitter.com/IfHillaryHad/status/885278082537357312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fbig-journalism%2F2017%2F07%2F13%2Fnewsweek-dabbles-in-president-hillary-fan-fiction%2F
- IfHillaryHad
But in covering this, and other alternative reality accounts, the article barely attempts to veil its own pinings for Hillary, imagining a Clinton who would work on “boring policy stuff” while “avoiding public meltdowns, Twitter spats and pointless fights with newscasters.”
“Can you even imagine an America like that anymore?” the outlet asks.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY