A former spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is now openly questioning the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s victory.

Brian Fallon appeared on CNN Friday morning and was asked to respond to a couple tweets sent out by Donald Trump. He replied, “Well, I think those tweets are just the latest indication that Donald Trump is someone who is very insecure in his victory, and I understand why. Every day there are new developments — new shoes dropping, so to speak — that call into question the legitimacy of his win.” Fallon continued, “I think Donald Trump is just trying to cling to whatever legitimacy still is in effect here.”

The tweets Fallon was responding to were posted Friday morning by Trump:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/819867246352801792

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/819868066364461058

Trump was responding to what Politico described as “a wave of former Clinton aides who took to network television screens Thursday….” The Clinton aides were eager to respond to the announcement that the Inspector General for the Department of Justice was going to investigate the behavior of the FBI prior to the election. As I noted yesterday, the investigation is not focused solely on the letter sent by Jim Comey prior to the election, but that is what the Clinton folks wanted to discuss. Brian Fallon called in to MSNBC Thursday night and said, “if this election had been held 10 days earlier, prior to the sending of Jim Comey’s letter, Hillary Clinton would be the 45th President of the United States.”

So one day after saying Clinton would have won, Fallon is going well beyond that and saying Trump’s win is illegitimate. That seems like exactly the sort of thing Democrats feared the Trump camp would do after Hillary won the election (they didn’t have much doubt about the outcome at the time). In fact, here’s pre-election Brian Fallon ridiculing Trump’s “rigged” election talk as “dangerous” and a “threat to democracy”:

Even for a reflexive conspiracy theorist like Trump, this is pathetic. It's dangerous, too.https://t.co/hcd4kQ4VS9

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 2, 2016

So if Trump wins, he will put his opponent in jail.
If he loses the system is rigged.
Either way, he is a threat to democracy.

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) October 10, 2016

Clearly there is a lot of bad blood in the Clinton camp. We saw some of it during a gathering at the Kennedy School of Government in which former Clinton communication director Jennifer Palmieri lashed out at Kellyanne Conway saying, “I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.” But the election really is over. The recounts are over. The failed attempt to rally faithless electors organized by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is over. As Joe Biden said when Democrats tried to interrupt the certification of the vote, “It is over.”

So what is the goal here? What does the Clinton-camp-in-exile hope to accomplish with this talk? It’s pretty hard to look at what  is doing and not see partisans, still fuming over an unexpected loss, looking for some payback. That doesn’t mean there are no reasons to investigate what Russia (or the FBI) did. All of that is taking place without Brian Fallon’s help. What he and the rest of the Clinton camp are doing right now is setting a very bad precedent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJX1mpIIbk