Hillary Clinton takes 'absolute personal responsibility' for losing the election, then blames James Comey

(Image credit: Screenshot/MSNBC)

published 2 May 2017

It has been six months since Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump, and people are still trying to figure out what happened — including Clinton herself. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Clinton seemed to wobble between taking personal responsibility and blaming exterior forces. "Of course I take absolute personal responsibility. I was the candidate. I was the person on the ballot," she said, before turning around to add: "I was on the way to winning before a combination of [James] Comey's letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people inclined to vote for me but got scared off."

Clinton concluded: "Did we make mistakes? Of course we did. Did I make mistakes? Oh my gosh, yes, you'll read my confession and my request for absolution. But the reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.