ABC News :
Hillary Clinton has blamed FBI director James Comey for her stunning defeat in Tuesday’s presidential election in a conference call with her top campaign funders, according to two participants involved in the phone hook-up. Mrs Clinton was projected by nearly every national public opinion poll as the heavy favourite going into Tuesday’s race. Instead, Republican Donald Trump won the election, shocking many throughout the nation and prompting widespread protests. Mrs Clinton has kept a low profile since her defeat after delivering her concession speech on Wednesday morning. On the phone call with supporters on Saturday, the Democrat presidential candidate said her campaign and the national party had raised $US900 million from more than 3 million individual donors, according to the two participants who spoke to Reuters. Mrs Clinton said Mr Comey was at fault for her loss after he decided to send a letter to Congress only days before the election announcing that he was reinstating an investigation into whether she mishandled classified information when she used a private email server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2012. “There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” Mrs Clinton told top donors on a farewell conference call, The Washington Post reported.
“But our analysis is that Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.”Mr Comey announced a week later that he had reviewed emails and continued to believe she should not be prosecuted, but the political damage was already done.
She told donors that Mr Trump was able to seize on both of the FBI director’s announcements and use them to attack her, according to two participants on the call.
While the second letter cleared her of wrongdoing, Mrs Clinton said that reinforced to Mr Trump’s supporters that the system was rigged in her favour and motivated them to mobilise on Election Day.
The memo prepared by Mrs Clinton’s campaign, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said voters who decided which candidate to support in the last week were more likely to support Mr Trump than Mrs Clinton.
“In the end, late breaking developments in the race proved one hurdle too many for us to overcome,” the memo concluded.A spokesperson for Mrs Clinton could not immediately be reached for comment.
As Mrs Clinton gave her account to donors, Mr Trump hunkered down at Trump Tower with members of the transition team who have been tasked with selecting the 15 Cabinet posts and thousands of political appointment jobs. Kellyanne Conway, who served as his campaign manager, said an announcement of a new chief of staff was “imminent”. Two candidates whose names have surfaced as contenders for the top White House job are campaign chief executive Steve Bannon and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus. Mr Trump will deliver a speech about his plans in the coming days and may undertake a national victory tour, Ms Conway said, without providing further details.
Leading Brexit campaigner and UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage also had what Ms Conway said was a “very productive” meeting with Mr Trump at his home on Saturday.
“I think they enjoy each other’s company, and they actually had a chance to talk about freedom and winning and what this all means for the world,” Ms Conway said of the meeting.
The President-elect plans to keep his communication channels open.
In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that will air on Sunday, Mr Trump said he was not ready to give up his Twitter account, where he routinely posts controversial statements during the campaign that unleashed harsh criticism.
Hillary Clinton has blamed FBI director James Comey for her stunning defeat in Tuesday’s presidential election in a conference call with her top campaign funders, according to two participants involved in the phone hook-up. Mrs Clinton was projected by nearly every national public opinion poll as the heavy favourite going into Tuesday’s race. Instead, Republican Donald Trump won the election, shocking many throughout the nation and prompting widespread protests. Mrs Clinton has kept a low profile since her defeat after delivering her concession speech on Wednesday morning. On the phone call with supporters on Saturday, the Democrat presidential candidate said her campaign and the national party had raised $US900 million from more than 3 million individual donors, according to the two participants who spoke to Reuters. Mrs Clinton said Mr Comey was at fault for her loss after he decided to send a letter to Congress only days before the election announcing that he was reinstating an investigation into whether she mishandled classified information when she used a private email server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2012. “There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” Mrs Clinton told top donors on a farewell conference call, The Washington Post reported.
“But our analysis is that Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.”Mr Comey announced a week later that he had reviewed emails and continued to believe she should not be prosecuted, but the political damage was already done.
She told donors that Mr Trump was able to seize on both of the FBI director’s announcements and use them to attack her, according to two participants on the call.
While the second letter cleared her of wrongdoing, Mrs Clinton said that reinforced to Mr Trump’s supporters that the system was rigged in her favour and motivated them to mobilise on Election Day.
The memo prepared by Mrs Clinton’s campaign, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said voters who decided which candidate to support in the last week were more likely to support Mr Trump than Mrs Clinton.
“In the end, late breaking developments in the race proved one hurdle too many for us to overcome,” the memo concluded.A spokesperson for Mrs Clinton could not immediately be reached for comment.
As Mrs Clinton gave her account to donors, Mr Trump hunkered down at Trump Tower with members of the transition team who have been tasked with selecting the 15 Cabinet posts and thousands of political appointment jobs. Kellyanne Conway, who served as his campaign manager, said an announcement of a new chief of staff was “imminent”. Two candidates whose names have surfaced as contenders for the top White House job are campaign chief executive Steve Bannon and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus. Mr Trump will deliver a speech about his plans in the coming days and may undertake a national victory tour, Ms Conway said, without providing further details.
Leading Brexit campaigner and UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage also had what Ms Conway said was a “very productive” meeting with Mr Trump at his home on Saturday.
“I think they enjoy each other’s company, and they actually had a chance to talk about freedom and winning and what this all means for the world,” Ms Conway said of the meeting.
The President-elect plans to keep his communication channels open.
In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that will air on Sunday, Mr Trump said he was not ready to give up his Twitter account, where he routinely posts controversial statements during the campaign that unleashed harsh criticism.
