Hillary Clinton says she believes misogyny, Russian interference and questionable decisions by the FBI prevented her from beating Donald Trump and becoming United States president.
The former Democratic presidential nominee said she took responsibility for the loss and had been going through the “painful” process of reliving the 2016 contest while writing a book.
She said while her campaign overcame an “enormous barrage of negativity, of false equivalency” but was fatally wounded by Russian leaks and the FBI’s eleventh-hour disclosures about her use of a private email server.
“It wasn’t a perfect campaign. There is no such thing,” Mrs Clinton said at the annual Women for Women International’s luncheon in New York.
“But I was on the way to winning until a combination of [FBI director] Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off.”
She reminded the enthusiastic audience packed with women that she ultimately earned 3 million more votes than Mr Trump.
She also highlighted Russia’s role in hacking into her campaign’s internal emails and subsequently coordinating their release on WikiLeaks, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as “that leader who shall remain nameless”.
US intelligence agencies are investigating whether Russia coordinated with Mr Trump associates to influence the election.
“[Mr Putin] certainly interfered in our election,” the former secretary of state said.
“And it’s clear he interfered to hurt me and help his opponent.”
Mrs Clinton linked Mr Putin’s alleged decision to support Mr Trump’s campaign to her accusing the Russian leader of rigging his election victory in 2012, when she was secretary of state.
In a question-and-answer-session with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Mrs Clinton said she thought misogyny was also a factor.
“I do think it played a role,” she said, adding that misogyny is “very much a part of the landscape politically, socially and economically”.
After two unsuccessful presidential campaigns, Mrs Clinton is not expected to run for public office again.
“I’m now back to being an active citizen,” she said.
AP
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