Hill: I’d have won if only . . .
Blames FBI’s surprise
Hillary Clinton just can’t get over losing to Donald Trump.
She told an interviewer Tuesday that she was winning the presidential election until FBI Director James Comey’s announcement about her campaign’s e-mails and their release on WikiLeaks.
“I was on my way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 and Russia WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off,” Clinton told CNN during an interview at the Women for Women International charity luncheon in New York.
“If the election had been on Oct. 27, I would be your president,” she insisted.
Clinton, the first female presi- dential candidate nominated by a major party, also partly blamed misogyny for her loss.
“Yes, I do think it played a role. I think other things did as well. Every day that goes by, we find out more about the unprecedented interference, including from a foreign power whose leader is not a member of my fan club,” Clinton said, without mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin by name.
She went on to boast how she won nearly 3 million more popular votes than Trump, although he won the Electoral College, 304 to 227.
Prompted by CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour that a tweet could be coming, Clinton used the opening to take a shot at Trump’s social-media habit.
“I’m happy to be the diversion,” the former secretary of state said. “We’ve got lots of other things to worry about. He should worry less about the election — and my winning the popular vote — than doing some other things that would be important for the country.”
As expectred, Trump responded in a pair of tweets shortly before midnight, saying, “FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds! The phony. . . . Trump/ Russia story was an excuse used by the Democrats as justification for losing the election. Perhaps Trump just ran a great campaign?”
Clinton faulted Trump for not having a strategy to deal with North Korean President Kim Jong-un and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
She said she supported Trump’s bombing of a Syrian military airfield in retaliation for Assad using poison gas on his people, but questioned whether the cruise-missile strike wouldl have much effect.