Hillary Clinton

Clinton Says McConnell Suppressed Russian Hacking

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New Yorker: “When the C.I.A. first told Obama, in August, that the Russians had been meddling in the Presidential race, the agency shared the information with the Gang of Eight—the congressional leadership and the chairs and the ranking members of the intelligence committees. The Administration asked for a bipartisan statement of warning. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, adamantly refused, muffling for weeks any sense of national alarm.”

Said Clinton: “McConnell, in what I think of as a not only unpatriotic but despicable act of partisan politics, made it clear that if the Obama Administration spoke publicly about what they knew, he would accuse them of partisan politics, of trying to tip the balance toward me… McConnell basically threatened the White House.”

Clinton Looks Back In Anger

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David Remnick: “For all of Hillary Clinton’s skills of survival, she will have a hard time finding a similar peace or place in public affairs. For one thing, Gore was in his early fifties when he lost. Clinton is sixty-nine. For another, the circumstances surrounding her defeat are immensely more disturbing. Clinton lost a race that few thought possible to lose. Her opponent was not Mitt Romney or John McCain or Marco Rubio but Donald Trump, a demonstrably crooked businessman and reality-television star, an unsavory, if shrewd, demagogue whose rhetoric and policy proposals had long flouted the constitutional norms of the United States.”

“She lost because of the tactical blunders of her campaign. She lost because she could never find a language, a thematic focus, or a campaigning persona that could convince enough struggling working Americans that she, and not a cartoonish plutocrat, was their champion. She lost because of the forces of racism, misogyny, and nativism that Trump expertly aroused. And she lost because of external forces (Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange, James Comey) that were beyond her control and are not yet fully understood.”

Shkreli Jailed As Threat to Clinton

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“Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive who is awaiting sentencing for a fraud conviction, was sent to jail on Wednesday after a federal judge found that he presented a threat to the community because he had offered money for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Shkreli, who was free on $5 million bail while he awaited sentencing, offered $5,000 on Facebook to anyone who could ‘grab a hair’ from Mrs. Clinton during her book tour.”

Clinton the Pragmatist

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Ezra Klein: “What Happened has been sold as Clinton’s apologia for her 2016 campaign, and it is that. But it’s more remarkable for Clinton’s extended defense of a political style that has become unfashionable in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Clinton is not a radical or a revolutionary, a disruptor or a socialist, and she’s proud of that fact. She’s a pragmatist who believes in working within the system, in promising roughly what you believe you can deliver, in saying how you’ll pay for your plans. She is frustrated by a polity that doesn’t share her ‘thrill’ over incremental policies that help real people or her skepticism of sweeping plans that will never come to fruition. She believes in politics the way it is actually practiced, and she holds to that belief at a moment when it’s never been less popular.”

“This makes Clinton a more unusual figure than she gets credit for being: Not only does she refuse to paint an inspiring vision of a political process rid of corruption, partisanship, and rancor, but she’s also actively dismissive of those promises and the politicians who make them.”

Clinton Says Comey Was Deciding Factor In Election

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Hillary Clinton told the Today Show that she was “dumbfounded” when former FBI Director James Comey reopened the investigation into her email server right before Election Day.

Said Clinton: “The determining factor was the intervention of Comey… it stopped my momentum, it drove voters from me.”

She added: “I feel very strongly that he went way beyond his role in doing what he did.”

Sanders Responds to Clinton Accusations

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Sen. Bernie Sanders brushed off the accusations in Hillary Clinton’s new book that his attacks on her during the primary made it hard for her to unify progressives, The Week reports.

Said Sanders: “Secretary Clinton ran against the most unpopular candidate in the history of this country and she lost and was upset about it, and I understand that. But our job now is really not to go backwards. It is to go forward.”

He added: “We need her help to go forward, let’s not keep arguing about 2016.”

Democrats Dread Clinton’s Book Tour

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President Trump “may be the only person in politics truly excited about Hillary Clinton’s book tour,” Politico reports.

“Democratic operatives can’t stand the thought of her picking the scabs of 2016, again — the Bernie Sanders divide, the Jim Comey complaints, the casting blame on Barack Obama for not speaking out more on Russia. Alums of her Brooklyn headquarters who were miserable even when they thought she was winning tend to greet the topic with, ‘Oh, God,’ ‘I can’t handle it,’ and ‘the final torture.'”

“Political reporters gripe privately (and on Twitter) about yet another return to the campaign that will never end. Campaign operatives don’t want the distraction, just as they head into another election season. And members of Congress from both parties want the focus on an agenda that’s getting more complicated by the week.”

Clinton Blames Russian Meddling, Comey for Her Loss

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CNN: “A lengthy middle section of Clinton’s book is devoted to Russia’s attempts to influence the US presidential contest, which Clinton blames in part for her loss. She describes herself as consumed by the various threads of Russia’s involvement, writing that she follows ‘every twist and turn of the story,’ often with chagrin.”

Writes Clinton: “I read everything I could get my hands on.”

“Clinton’s book does involve some introspection and she takes responsibility for her failures, but the book oozes with contempt for Trump and blames two external factors — Russia and fired FBI Director James Comey — for her loss.”

Clinton Blames Sanders for Inflicting ‘Lasting Damage’

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Hillary Clinton casts Sen. Bernie Sanders as an unrealistic over-promiser in her new book, CNN reports.

She also said that his attacks against her during the primary caused “lasting damage” and paved the way for Donald Trump’s “Crooked Hillary” campaign.

Clinton said Sanders “had to resort to innuendo and impugning my character” because the two Democrats “agreed on so much.”