Sep 16, 2017
16 things Hillary Clinton blames for her election loss
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Hillary Clinton speaks during the Book Expo event in New York. Photo: Craig Ruttle/AP
In Hillary Clinton's new book "What Happened" she details the experience of her 2016 campaign, and tries to answer the question posed by the title: what happened that caused her to lose the election?
In the book, and in news appearances, Clinton has pinned her loss on several different factors, such as how journalists covered the election, former FBI Director James Comey, and the questions asked at debates.
Here are the 16 reasons Hillary says she lost:
- Herself: In her book, Hillary blames her "damn emails," her remarks about putting coal miners out of business, and calling Trump's supporters "deplorable."
- Russia: "What Putin wanted to do was...influence our election, and he's not exactly fond of strong women, so you add that together and that's pretty much what it means."
- The DNC: "I'm now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party. It was bankrupt...I had to inject money into it - the DNC - to keep it going."
- Sexism and misogyny: "Sexism and misogyny played a role in the 2016 presidential election. Exhibit A is that the flagrantly sexist candidate won."
- A Democratic predecessor: "It's really difficult to succeed a president of your own party who has served two terms. That is a historical fact."
- Bernie Sanders: "His attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump's 'Crooked Hillary' campaign."
- Wikileaks: "The comey letter, aided to great measure by the Russian WikiLeaks, raised...doubts again. And so even though I won the popular vote, enough people in a few states...were just raising all these questions."
- Her "traditional" campaign: "I was running a traditional presidential campaign...while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans' anger and resentment."
- The debate questions, not being asked "how the candidates planned to create jobs": "I was waiting for the moment when one of the people asking the questions would have said, 'Well, so, exactly how are you going to create more jobs?'"
- Political journalists: "[Journalists] can't bear to face their own role in helping elect Trump, from providing him free airtime to giving my emails three times more coverage than all the issues affecting people's lives combined."
- Campaign financing: "You had Citizens United come to its full fruition. So unaccountable money flowing in against me, against other Democrats, in a way that we hadn't seen and then attached to this weaponized information war."
- President Obama: "I do wonder sometimes about what would have happened if President Obama had made a televised address to the nation...warning that our democracy was under attack. Maybe more Americans would have woken up to the threat in time."
- TV coverage of the campaign: "When you have a presidential campaign and the total number of minutes on TV news...was 32 minutes, I don't blame voters. Voters are going to hear what they hear...and if they don't get a broad base of information to make judgements on."
- Low-information voters: "You put yourself in the position of a low-information voter, and all of a sudden your Facebook feed, your Twitter account is saying, 'Oh my gosh, Hillary Clinton is running a child trafficking operation in Washington with John Podesta.'"
- Women under pressure from men: "They will be under tremendous pressure from fathers and husbands and boyfriends and male employers not to vote for 'the girl.'"
- James Comey: "The determining factor was the intervention by Comey on October 28...but for that intervention, I would have won."
