Hillary Clinton's communications director Jennifer Palmieri is refusing to back down from her claim that Donald Trump won the White House on the backs of white supremacists.

'I don’t know whether the Trump campaign needed to give a platform to white supremacists to win,' she writes in the Washington Post today. 'But the campaign clearly did, and it had the effect of empowering the white-nationalist movement.'

The former White House official and Clinton aide wants the president-elect to 'own up to it.'

Hillary Clinton's communications director Jennifer Palmieri is refusing to back down from her claim that Donald Trump won the White House on the backs of white supremacists

Trump has said he does not 'want to energize' racists and denied last month in an interview that ever did.

Palmieri hit Trump in the Post for retweeting white nationalists from his Twitter account and giving a voice to views 'previously relegated to the darkest corners of the Internet.'

She invoked former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who ran for a U.S. Senate seat this year as a Republican, and his claim that Trump's success 'proves that I’m winning.'

Duke and Richard Spencer, another white nationalist, have praised Trump's hiring of Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart News, to be his senior counselor at the White House.

Bannon joined Trump's general election campaign in August, becoming CEO. Clinton dedicated an entire speech that month to decimating the 'alt-right' movement. In it she ripped Bannon and Breitbart for promoting 'race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant ideas.'

'The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump Campaign represents a landmark achievement for the “Alt-Right.” A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party,' she proclaimed.

Palmieri recalled the speech last week as she tore into Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway at a post-election forum for senior aides to 2016 candidates.

'If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician I am glad to have lost,' she said at the Harvard University event. 'I am more proud of Hillary Clinton's alt-right speech than any other moment on the campaign trail.'

She then made the jaw-dropping declaration, 'I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.'

Aghast, Conway, spat back at her, 'No you wouldn't. No you wouldn't.'

Conway said they won by 'looking at the schedule' and the electoral map 'because that is how you win the presidency.'

'And we went into places where we were either ignored or mocked roundly by most of the people in this room,' Conway said. 'And we did it by focusing with Steve Bannon and David Bossie and everybody you see here.'

Bossie was Conway's deputy. He came to the campaign from conservative activist group Citizens United.

WHAT WINNING LOOKS LIKE: Palmieri tore into Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway at a post-election forum for senior aides to 2016 candidates last week. Palmieri said, 'I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.' Aghast, Conway, spat back at her, 'No you wouldn't

Former Klanman David Duke and Richard Spencer, another white nationalist, have praised Trump's hiring of Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart News, to be his senior counselor at the White House. Palmieri invoked Bannon as she bashed the Trump campaign

Clinton dedicated an entire speech that month to decimating the 'alt-right' movement. In it she ripped Bannon and Breitbart for promoting 'race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant ideas'

Palmieri went on to directly accuse Bannon and Trump of providing a platform for 'white supremacists, white nationalists' with their words.

'Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform? Are you going to look me in the face and tell me that?' Conway replied.

Palmieri told her, 'It did. Kellyanne, it did.'

The heated back and forth dominated the news cycle. Palmieri said Thursday in the Washington Post that she wasn't going to let the argument end there.

'A good bit of the post-election analysis has centered on what our campaign should have done differently. That’s appropriate. We should think long and hard about why we lost. Trust me, we have,' she said in the op-ed.

'But it’s also important for the winners of this campaign to think long and hard about the voters who rejected them. I haven’t seen much evidence of such introspection from the Trump side. That’s concerning.'

Palmieri argued that Trump's words should indeed be taken 'literally' and he should be held accountable for the inflammatory comments he made about Mexicans, Muslims

Palmieri argued that Trump's words should indeed be taken 'literally' and he should be held accountable for the inflammatory comments he made about Mexicans, Muslims.

'You know who else took his words literally? White supremacists,' she wrote. 'Many of our supporters were sincerely frightened by his campaign’s embrace of the alt-right.'

Trump may not have intended for his words to be taken literally she said, but they were.

'That has already had real-life consequences that our new president must own up to. That’s why what he said during the campaign matters. That’s why everything he says matters.'

If he didn't mean what he said, Palmieri declared, he needs to explain what he meant.

'We all have a role to play here. But it’s the winner who carries the burden of taking the lead in uniting the country. It’s the burden of leadership. It’s the burden of being the president of the United States.'

Trump has condemned Duke and the racist wing of the Republican Party.

He told the New York Times last month, 'I've known Steve Bannon a long time. If I thought he was a racist, or "alt-right" or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn't even think about hiring him.'