Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that she takes “personal responsibility” for her loss in the US 2016 Presidential election.
Speaking at a Women for Women International event in New York, Clinton also put responsibility on the letter released by FBI Director James Coney and Russian interference in the election.
“I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot. I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had.
“It wasn’t a perfect campaign. There is no such thing,” she said. “But I was on the way to winning, until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on 28 October and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off.”
Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour how Vladimir Putin and the Russian government were also responsible for the hacking and subsequent release of those emails on the website WikiLeaks, as an attempt to boost support for Trump.
She reminded viewers that Podesta’s emails appeared on WikiLeaks less than an hour after the 2005 Access Hollywood tape emerged, where President Trump was seen bragging about sexual assault.
“What a coincidence,” Clinton said. “You just can’t make this stuff up. Did we make mistakes? Oh course we did. Did I make mistakes? Oh my gosh, yes. You’ll read my confession and my request for absolution. But the reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.”
After six months of Trump’s presidency, Clinton assured the audience that she was back in the political sphere and would be dedicated to protecting women’s rights.
“I am now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance,”
“He should worry less about the election and my winning the popular vote than doing some other things that would be important for the country,” she added.