Hillary Clinton blames sexism, Russia, FBI for loss, Trump blasts her

Former US secretary of states and Democratic party presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton has said FBI Director James Comey and Russia's intervention were more decisive factors in her election downfall and believes sexism played a role in her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election.


In an interview at Women for Women International, a global charity, on Tuesday, Clinton said that Comey's announcement in October, 2016 that he would reopen an investigation into her email server and Russian-backed moves by WikiLeaks scared off potential voters.

Clinton, who served as secretary of state under President Obama, was projected as the heavy favourite but lost to Republican Trump in the November 8 election and had she won, would have been the nation's first woman president.

When asked by CNN interviewer Christiane Amanpour if sexism played a part in her loss, Clinton said: "I do think it played a role.

"It is real. It is very much a part of the landscape politically, socially and economically."

She however claimed "absolutely" responsibility for her loss but placed blame on the FBI's Comey, who sent a letter to Congress days before the election saying he was reinstating an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state, and on Russian intervention.

Also, WikiLeaks released Democratic emails during the campaign that US intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the race against Clinton.

"I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter of October 28 and Russian Wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off," she said.

If the election had been held on October 27 "I would be the president" she added.

Meanwhile US president, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to blast Clinton claims saying that the  best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds."

He also said that "the phony Trump/Russia story was an excuse used by the Democrats as justification for losing the election".