Hillary Clinton said former FBI Director James Comey should have just ‘called me up’ to ask for emails in the final days of the campaign rather than essentially reopening an investigation into her only to close it in the campaign’s final days.
Clinton retraced the litany of external causes she blames for her defeat in her first live interview on the ‘Today Show’ on NBC Wednesday.
As in her new memoir, ‘What Happened,’ she puts Comey at the top of the list for his intervention, which ultimately uncovered nothing new.
‘It stopped my momentum, it drove voters from me,’ Clinton said.
‘He could have called me up … and say, “Hey can we look at this new stuff?’
‘It stopped my momentum, it drove voters from me,’ Clinton said of James Comey’s decision to write Congress and inform lawmakers he was taking another look at Clinton’s emails, only to later say nothing new came out
The FBI had come into possession of a laptop which had Clinton emails because of an unrelated investigation into disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, who is married to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The two are separated.
She told hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie Comey was the ‘determining factor’ in her defeat.
‘But for that intervention I would have won,’ she said.
She learned about it aboard her campaign plane.
‘I was stunned to be honest. I didn’t know what to think about it because I knew there was nothing there,’ she said. ‘I was just dumbfounded.’
‘I feel very strongly that he went way beyond his role in doing what he did,’ Clinton said.
Clinton gave her first live interview since her defeat on the Today Show
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 12: Former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton signs copies of her book, “What Happened” at Barnes & Noble Union Square on September 12, 2017 in New York City
Clinton also spoke about Russia’s plan to influence the election, and brought up Trump associate Roger Stone’s online mention that her campaign chair, John Podesta, would some have his time in ‘the barrel,’ days before WikiLeaks released his emails.
‘If I had been elected and this had come to light … I would have stopped at nothing to make sure this never happened again to anybody,’ Clinton said.
She also listed Misogyny and sexism as a reason for her loss. She said she also made her own mistakes but outlined them in the book and didn’t bring them up.
‘Race is a much more motivating factor for voters than gender is,’ she said.
After mentioning the ‘mistakes that I made,’ Clinton asked: ‘What about endemic sexism and misogyny? What about the unprecedented action of the FBI diretor? What about the interference by an adversary nation to determine or tilt the outcome of our election? What about voter suppression”‘