In a soon-to-be-released book, Hillary Clinton offers yet another excuse for why she lost the 2016 election, this time blaming her fellow women for abandoning her because she wasn’t “perfect.”
The former secretary of state claimed she lost female voters after an investigation was launched into her private email server, according to a report on Friday. Reported by The New York Times.
Clinton’s comments were taken from an interview she gave in February for her upcoming book, “The Breaking of Roe: The Rise of a New America.”
In it, the former first lady argued that Democrats had underestimated the growing power of anti-abortion forces that would ultimately overturn the landmark Dobbs decision in 2022.
“I think most of us who support women’s rights, who support privacy, who support the right to make difficult decisions for ourselves, could not believe what was going on. And then, slowly, surely, and very effectively, they got what they wanted,” Clinton said.
“Our side was complacent, we took it for granted and thought it would never go away.”
Clinton said that if she were still a senator, she would have worked to block the confirmation of President Trump’s appointees, Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom overturned their convictions.
“The impression that emerges from this interview is that had she won the White House, Roe would likely have become a cornerstone of American life,” the authors write.
Clinton reflected on the role sexism played in her 2016 campaign, alleging that FBI Director James Comey reopened an investigation into her private emails at the last minute to cast doubt on her judgment, and called her “extremely careless.”
She speculates that this highly publicized action cost her the race and also the female vote.
“But the people who left me after he did that to me, the voters, were women,” she told The Times.
“They threw me out because they couldn’t take risks with me because, as a woman, I’m supposed to be perfect. They were willing to take risks with Trump because, although Trump had a long list of flaws, so to speak, that showed his imperfections, he was a man and they could imagine a man being president and commander in chief.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s infamous sexual misconduct and assault accusations have had little impact on his base.
He pushed his promise to overturn Roe if elected, which helped him win the election.
“Politically, he moved to the right on the abortion issue and reaped big rewards,” Clinton said.
