Bob Schieffer: ‘I don’t think anybody has ever seen anything like that campaign’

Even after Donald Trump began to win key swing states, the CBS News team covering election night from New York still believed Hillary Clinton would find a way to pull off a victory, according to former “Face the Nation” moderator Bob Schieffer.

“I thought it was going to be close, but I must say in my heart of hearts I never thought [Trump would] win,” Schieffer said.

{mosads}“When he began to win those key states, we all began to think, ‘Could this really be happening … is this going to happen?’ ” the CBS News contributor said. “But I don’t think even then we really thought that she wouldn’t pull it out in some way.”

“Even his own people, his own pollsters, according to my sources, gave him a 20 percent chance to win,” he added.

Schieffer, 80, who has covered 14 presidential elections dating back to 1964 and served as a presidential debate moderator on several occasions, said the 2016 campaign and result was like nothing the country has ever witnessed. 

“I don’t think anybody has ever seen anything like that campaign, and I don’t think any of us have ever seen anything like this White House,” he said.