Clinton blames FBI director for election defeat

Hillary Clinton has blamed FBI Director James Comey’s letters, sent in the week running up the to the US election, for her surprise loss to Donald Trump.

In a phone conversation with campaign donors, Clinton said that the two letters managed to kill, and reverse, momentum she had gained after winning.

Clinton said that Comey’s decision to go public with the renewed examination of her emails proved to be pivotal. She said that her data team saw her numbers plunge after the letter, however there was also an indication that they had started to rebound.

Comey announced, a week later, that after reviewing the emails, the FBI had maintained their previous position that Clinton should not be prosecuted.

Rather than help her, this second email said Clinton, reinforced Trump’s supporters that the system was rigged against Trump and led to greater mobilisation of voters opposed to her.

Clinton was projected, by the vast majority of national polls, as being the heavy favourite going into last Tuesday’s election. Instead, Donald Trump won the election, winning a majority of electoral college votes, despite losing the popular vote.