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Mook Attempts to Defend Clinton's 'Joyless Campaign'

December 4, 2016

CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday addressed Hillary Clinton's struggle with her persona on stage as opposed to the "warmer person" she is behind the scenes, asking former campaign manager Robby Mook how he dealt with the situation.

Mook and his counterpart for Donald Trump's campaign, Kellyanne Conway, spoke with Jake Tapper at Harvard University to discuss their post-election reactions.

Mook talked about how undecided voters were swayed to vote for Trump after FBI Director James Comey released a letter about the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server days before the election. Mook called Comey's decision to send the letter to Congress "unprecedented" and a "total breach of protocol."

He then noted that Conway claimed Trump won because Clinton's team ran a "joyless campaign."

Conway chimed in after Mook finished his statement, telling him, "You're joyful."

"I'm a joyful guy, Hillary's really joyful," Mook responded.

Tapper added to the discussion by addressing Clinton being a different person on stage as opposed to behind the scenes, a criticism that plagued the Democratic nominee throughout the campaign.

"Everybody who knows Hillary Clinton says that the person you see on stage is not the person that you see behind the scenes, that behind the scenes she's a much warmer person, a much more amusing person," Tapper said.

"Did you struggle to get that person from behind the scenes out into the crowd," Tapper asked Clinton's former campaign manager.

"Look, there were a lot of headwinds in this case. We were trying to make history," Mook answered, not denying the Clinton campaign struggled with the issue.