Hillary Clinton doesn’t believe her husband’s tarmac meeting with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch ruined public perception of her or cost her the election.
The former presidential candidate spoke to PBS while promoting her new book ‘What Happened.’
She has blamed many factors for why she lost to President Donald Trump, including but not limited to Facebook, former FBI director James Comey and the Electoral College.
But Clinton ‘rejects’ the notion that Bill’s meeting with the attorney general who was investigating her emails cost her the election.
She admitted it was a bad look and blames Comey above Lynch.
Hillarry Clinton said she did not think Loretta Lynch’s meeting with her husband on the tarmac of a Phoenix airport cost her the election
When Judy Woodruff asked whether or not this was a fatal mistake, Clinton responded: ‘I honestly reject that premise, partly because there’s a chain of command in the Justice Department.
‘There’s a deputy attorney general. We all now know who it was, Sally Yates, a woman of experience and integrity.
‘We knew at the time, after it was reported that, you know, both my husband and Loretta Lynch said they didn’t say a word about this. The optics were not good. I admit that.
Clinton then turned the conversation back to James Comey: ‘But in this chain of command, if the attorney general is recused, you know, the deputy attorney general. And what we know happened is that the investigation was getting nowhere. There was nothing to find. And he was in a position of having to accept the evidence that there was no case.’
Because of the optics of Loretta Lynch meeting with Bill while she was investigating his wife, she said she would agree to what the FBI director recommended
‘The optics were not good’: Hillary Clinton admitted it was a bad look when her husband met with Loretta Lynch who agreed to accept the FBI director’s recommendations as to not appear biased
Comey essentially led the investigation into Clinton’s private email server before Lynch pulled back as a result of the June meeting.
Clinton said the main reason for her defeat was James Comey’s October 28 letter that the investigation into her email server was reopened.
Woodruff reiterated the question and pointed out because of the meeting, Lynch agreed to accept what the FBI director said as far as whether or not Clinton would be charged.
Because of this, Comey became a more prominent figure in the investigation which led to the October 28 letter.
Clinton said: ‘I just don’t — Judy, I don’t believe that.
‘I mean, he was in a position that was subordinate to the chain of command in the Justice Department. So, Loretta Lynch recuses. It’s like when Sessions recused. The deputy attorney general steps forward and starts, you know, running the investigation.’
Comey said the meeting between Bill Clinton and Lynch was ‘extremely careless’ but did not recommend charges for the incident.