Clinton blames Comey, WikiLeaks for election loss

Hillary Clinton blamed her election loss on FBI Director James Comey and WikiLeaks’ publication of Democratic emails in a rare public appearance Tuesday, but took responsibility for the defeat herself as well. 

Clinton, speaking at a Women for Women International event, said that she’ll explain more in a book she’s writing about the campaign.

“I was the candidate. I was the person who was on the ballot and I am very aware of, you know, the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had,” Clinton said. “Again, I will write all this out for you.”

Clinton said she was on track to winning the election until Oct. 28, when news broke that Comey had sent a letter to Congress announcing that he had reopened the investigation into her emails. 

Clinton also attributed the loss to Russian hackers who allegedly attacked Democratic email accounts, then gave the emails to WikiLeaks for publication.

“I was on the way to winning until the combination of 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,” Clinton said.

“And the evidence for that intervening event is, I think, compelling, persuasive. And so we overcame a lot. We overcame an enormous barrage of negativity, of false equivalency, and so much else.”

{mosads}Clinton noted that FiveThirtyEight elections analyst Nate Silver argued she would have won the election had it taken place on October 27, the day before Comey’s letter went public.

Clinton has previously cited Comey and Wikileaks as factors in her election loss. Speaking at the Women in the World Summit in early April, Clinton said Wikileaks “played a much bigger role” in the election than people currently understand.