The election of 2016 was a lot of things. It was a showdown between two candidates who had been household names for decades.

It was the second time in five elections where the winning candidate lost the popular vote.

And most relevant here, it was eight years ago. And one of the candidates in that election is running again in 2024, so we've still got a long time before we

can see the full impact that this election had on U.S. history. For now, though, we can say that the

narrow margin by which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton has already cast third parties,

both candidates and outside actors, as central characters in the narrative of 2016. Did Jill Stein's Green Party run hand

the election to Donald Trump as some critics claim? Is it true that Russia, quote, hacked the

election? Or did the Democratic National Committee's advocacy for Hillary Clinton deny the party

a winning candidate? Let's try to find out. Welcome to the final installment of the Road to Now's

third party series. Today, the election of 2016 and ever after with John Heilman. I'm Bob Crawford.

I'm Ben Sawyer. And this is The Road to Now. Here we are the pretty much final episode of our third party also ran series.

We've journeyed through the past 200 years from John Quincy Adams in 1824 to John Bell in 1860 to Theodore Roosevelt and 1912 John Anderson 1980.

As this train approaches its destination, it becomes increasingly difficult to be impartial.

I mean, this has been the one where I'm like, well, this is going to be fun to talk about, but also at the same time, I don't think anyone's going

to be like, hmm, that's interesting. That happened a long time ago. They're going to be like,

basically this is yesterday in terms of our political memory, because we're still living in the wake

of this election. And we're seeing living in the wake of this election.

And we're seeing all types of impacts or consequences, if you will, depending on which side you're on.

So let's get it rolling, Bob.

Yeah, our guest today. And who better to talk about this moment, 2024, than John Heilman, National Affairs Analyst for NBC News, co-creator of the

late great circus. We remember ye fondly and pray that you come back in some form at some point.

John, welcome to The Road to Now.

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