Hillary Clinton reflects on 2016 election and seemingly blames women for loss claiming 'they left her'
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images/ Alex Wong/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton appeared to lay the blame for her 2016 election loss to Donald Trump on women for not 'taking a risk' on her.
The former presidential nominee reflected on her defeat in 2016 in an interview with the New York Times, and highlighted what she felt was a factor in the election.
In the interview, Clinton drew attention to Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark court case which set the precedent for abortion to be federally legalised in the US.
Clinton argued that the decision to overturn Roe v Wade vindicated her warnings in 2016 that the election of Donald Trump would endanger women in the US.
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Nonetheless, she seemingly placed the blame for her defeat with female voters who did not turn turn out to support her.
Recalling FBI director James Comey's decision to reopen the investigation into her private emails, Clinton said that this had led many voters to abandon her at the last minute.
She went on to say that these voters were women, telling the New York Times: “Once he [Comey] did that to me, the people, the voters who left me, were women."
Clinton went on to say that she felt the fact that she is a woman was a big factor in her defeat, saying: “They left me because they just couldn’t take a risk on me, because as a woman, I’m supposed to be perfect.
“They were willing to take a risk on [Trump] - who had a long list of, let’s call them flaws, to illustrate his imperfection - because he was a man, and they could envision a man as president and commander in chief.”
A lot has happened since 2016, to put it mildly, and ahead of this year's presidential election, Clinton is drawing attention to the 'existential' threat to the US which Trump and the far right now pose.
“We didn’t take it seriously, and we didn’t understand the threat,” she said. “Most Democrats, most Americans, did not realize we are in an existential struggle for the future of this country.”
Clinton remains a divisive figure, particularly among the left in the US.
In a recent interview on MSNBC which touched on the protests sweeping US university campuses over Gaza, she accused protestors of not understanding the history of the Middle East.
The interview prompted fury as critics highlighted Clinton's controversial record in the Middle East, including supporting the invasion of Iraq in 2003.