Clinton plays blame game:

America

Clinton

Hillary Clinton takes responsibility for her devastating loss to Donald Trump in her tell-all book about the 2016 presidential race, but she also blames Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Vladimir Putin and others, published excerpts show.

In her campaign chronicle “What Happened,” set for release on Sept 12, the veteran Democrat acknowledges her own role in her defeat, writing: “It was my campaign. Those were my decisions.”

But she also points the finger at a long list of political rivals, apparent allies, and morning television hosts, and signals that much of what happened in 2016 was outside her control.

Sanders, a socialist-leaning senator who challenged her during the Democratic primaries, resorted to “innuendo and impugning on my character” in attacks that caused “lasting damage” and disunity, the 69-yearold Clinton wrote, according to excerpts reported by US media on Thursday and Friday.

Regardless of how “progressive” her own policy proposals were, “Bernie would come out with something even bigger, loftier and leftier, regardless of whether it was realistic or not,” she added.

Sanders offered a terse response. “I.e., Bernie Sanders just stole all of Hillary Clinton’s ideas. Does anybody really believe that?” he said on MSNBC.

Clinton also trained her frustrations on Obama, who backed her as his successor, saying a stronger, televised response by the then-president to Russian meddling in the election might have helped her. (AFP)