Paris Dennard: ‘Wow, we actually did it’

Paris Dennard, a political commentator who had been a fierce on-air defender of Trump throughout the election, was on a CNN set when he got a tip from a colleague. Internal Trump polling looked favorable for the candidate.

But it wasn’t until the evening, when Dennard was on the rooftop of the W Hotel in Washington looking down at the White House, that he knew Trump pulled off a stunning victory. 

{mosads}Dennard watched with friends and other Trump supporters as the Democratic “blue wall” in Wisconsin and Michigan fell to Trump.

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“Looking out at the White House, looking at the Washington Monument and then being around so many people who, some of them were just like, ‘Wow, we actually did it,’ ” Dennard said. “It was a surreal, but very, very rewarding and exciting feeling.”

Dennard didn’t speak with Trump in the immediate weeks after the election but met with him after his inauguration when he was part of a small group of people invited to the Roosevelt Room for Black History Month.

“He says, ‘My defender, Paris Dennard,’ ” Dennard said.