Hundreds of one-star reviews for Hillary Clinton’s new memoir have been removed from Amazon
Hundreds of one-star reviews for Hillary Clinton’s new memoir have been removed from Amazon.
They appeared within hours of the publication of What Happened, a 512-page book in which she tries to set out why she lost the US presidential election to Donald Trump.
It was published on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning there were more than 1,500 reviews on Amazon.com, most of which were either glowing or scathing.
Quartz, which analysed the reviews, said that of the 1,500-odd original reviews, ‘only 338 were from users with verified purchases of the book’.
The book’s publisher at Simon & Schuster, Jonathan Karp, said: ‘It seems highly unlikely that approximately 1,500 people read Hillary Clinton’s book overnight and came to the stark conclusion that it is either brilliant or awful.’
Amazon says reviews are designed to help customers make purchase decisions and it’s not the company’s role to decide what customers would find helpful in reviews.
The ex-First Lady and Democratic candidate’s book features a series of digs at Donald Trump, with Mrs Clinton describing her election foe at one point as a ‘creep’ who made her skin crawl.
In total, the president’s name is mentioned 536 times.
But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hinted Mr Trump was unlikely to read it.
The reviews appeared within hours of the publication of What Happened, a 512-page book in which Mrs Clinton tries to set out why she lost the US presidential election to Donald Trump. It was published on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning there were more than 1,500 reviews on Amazon.com
‘Whether or not he’s going to read Hillary Clinton’s book, I’m not sure. I think he’s pretty well versed on what happened,’ she said at a daily press briefing. ‘And I think it’s pretty clear to all of America.
‘I think it’s sad that after Hillary Clinton ran one of the most negative campaigns in history and lost, the last chapter of her public life is now going to be defined by propping up book sales with false and reckless attacks,’ she added.
In her book, Mrs Clinton talks about her fears for the United States under her one-time adversary’s leadership.
‘I had known Donald Trump for years but had never imagined he’d be standing on the steps of the Capitol taking the oath of office as President of the United States,’ she writes in the first chapter. ‘He was a fixture of the New York scene when I was a Senator … only more flamboyant and self promoting.’
Peppered throughout the book are criticisms of Mr Trump’s personality, his policies and his suitability as Commander-in-Chief. In one of her most controversial passages, she describes her vanquisher’s inauguration speech as ‘a howl from the white nationalist gut.’
‘In 1992 and 2008, change meant electing dynamic young leaders who promised hope and renewal. In 2016, it meant handing a lit match to a pyromaniac,’ she writes.