Bill Clinton: Comey 'cost' my wife the election

[mitty14u2]

Source: thehill

Bill Clinton: Comey 'cost' my wife the election

Former PresidentBill Clintonis blaming his wife's loss in the presidential election on FBI Director James Comey.

"James Comey cost her the election," Clinton said, according to an editorial published in the Bedford-Pound Ridge Record Review in New York after its editor ran into Clinton at a local bookstore.

Comeyin October sent a letter to lawmakers about the discovery of new emails the FBI said were potentially relevant to the investigation intoHillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Bill Clinton said Hillary Clinton's campaign was leading in national polls and on a path to win key battleground states prior to Comey's letter, as firstreportedby Politico.




Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/310974-bill-clinton-comey-cost-my-wife-the-election

---

When Comey talked my stomach felt like I was punched, the wind knocked out of are sails.

We were up by 5-7 points before Comey by election day it was 2 points. People on the fence decided either to stay home or vote for someone else.

Hillary's trials and tribulations seemed to be overcome, F'ing Bengazi, her emails all the Fake news, we still had him beat.

The media said she had it in the bag kept many from not voting, the weather tuned cold in the rust belt, of course you had never Hillary by Sanders voters, voter suppression but Comey coming out twice was the knife in the back.

Comeys ethics, a republican, didn't rise up to Obamas, the president could have came forward to lean it back toward Hillary, telling the world about hacking, he left that up to GOP leadership they also stayed silent!

[ffr]

1. FIXED: Cost us "all"

Not just HRC. We're all going to be paying for this gross error for decades, if even we're given the chance to. I'm doubtful we'll get another chance. This country is done!

[Ohioblue22]

2. Still blaming everyone else except the dems

"People on the fence decided either to stay home or vote for someone else. "
It's wasn't just people on the fence

[pnwmom]

7. The Dems voted for Hillary. But the undecideds broke for DT in the last few days.

That's according to the poll aggregators.

[Ohioblue22]

9. No the voted for stein , Mr aleppo and trump

[elmac]

14. If they voted for Stein, aleppo or sniffles during the GE

then I guess they weren't Democrats after all.

[groundloop]

20. It's not Democrats we're talking about, it's unaffiliated undecided voters.

Those are the ones who don't pay a lot of attention to all the news, all they know is that the FBI director came out with damaging 'news' about Hillary so they either didn't vote or else voted for someone other than Hillary..... costing us the Electoral College.

[Sunlei]

76. or like Detroit voters, 90,000 left their ballots BLANK. they voted on EVERYTHING except aPresident.

Those voters weren't happy with trump or Hillary.

[MichMan]

78. That figure was for the entire state

That was for the entire state, not just Detroit. A portion were write ins for Bernie and Harambe etc.

[reggaehead]

51. Horsehockey

Comey purposely interfered in American Democracy. He should be locked up in Guantanamo after its clised

[Axolotls]

60. It sure didn't help, that's for sure

While I don't think it was the only thing as there were a multitude of other factors, it served to underscore and reinforce Hillary as being untrustworthy and shady.

[DK504]

23. DWS didn't make things easy for Hillary.

[pnwmom]

64. Which email or emails were so damaging?

The leaked emails show DWS was trying to help Hillary at the end of April and in May -- at which point there was no possibility of Bernie getting enough pledged delegates to win.

[JudyM]

34. His antics didn't help her any, either... perpetuated the impression that rules don't apply to them.

[Truth321]

3. Remember when

It will be decades of Republicans. Theyve seized control. Won't even be anything we remember when they are finished.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Almost certainly true.

Although I personally found it ridiculous that polling was ever close at all, here's exit poll information from some critical rust belt states.
http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls

1. When did you decide presidential vote? (Answer: In the last week)
2. Does Clinton's use of private email bother you? (Answer: Yes)

PA
1. 15%
2. 65%

WI
1. 14%
2. 65%

MI
1. 13%
2. 60%

[ffr]

13. Lesson to draw: GOP tactics of keeping this non-story an issue in the News worked.

Proving that when it's the only thing they felt they had on her, if they repeated it 10,000 times, it was the 10,001 time that made the difference. Thanks James Comey! Fcuker!

[pstokely]

26. Comey might have been enough, she was already weak in the Rust Belt

she never even visited places Obama won like Dayton OH, PA outside of the Philly and Pittsburgh areas, most of MI outside of Detroit in the final weeks, or any of WI, the campaign was too complacent

[Buckeye_Democrat]

31. I was amazed that she lost the Dayton area too.

She indeed didn't visit here.

I voted early on October 12th and felt optimistic because I didn't see any Trump volunteers outside the polling area, but lots of Clinton volunteers and signs.

I told a female store clerk about Trump's "grab them by the pussy" comment the day that videotape was released and she acted upset at him. Then she said, "I'll still vote for him over Clinton." I should've known right then that she was in trouble.

[pstokely]

37. I never saw a lot of tRump or HRC bumper stickers, I still see Bernie bumper stickers

Didn't see a lot of tRump yard signs in my area the always goes blue even with low turnout like this year, but I didn't see much more Clinton signs, probably saw more yard signs for the downballot Repuke candidates than any for tRump, still saw lots of tRUmp signs in the red areas along the interstate always, the HRC campaign assumed they could enough regular Repukes voters but didn't really like tRUmp that much "Trump bad" ads

[Buckeye_Democrat]

39. I saw almost no Clinton signs in my Dayton suburb, but not many...

... Trump signs either. It was the most sign-free general election in my memory.

If I drove just a few miles into more rural areas of the county, it was all-Trump.

EDIT: I still see Bernie bumper stickers too.

[JHan]

6. Democrats need to speak out more about voter suppression but Clinton is right here:

As that weekend approached, Hillary was outside the margin of error - the letter put her right back in the margin of error for several reasons:

1) Democrats and independents who were hedging were reminded of the email fiasco. And they were daily reminded for a week : there was also a lot of damaging speculation because of suspect leaks from the FBI and ex agents claiming Hillary would be indicted. Fox News Brett Bair went so far as to confirm the possibility on Wednesday/Thurs only to retract and half apologize for his terribad journalism a few days after- by that time the damage was done because "Hillary maybe indicted" dominated the news for at least 48 hours as I recall.

2) It gave Trump and his surrogates Ammo to attack for a whole week. They went into overdrive with lies like the "Email investigation reopened" , one surrogate even suggested Huma was paid off by Clinton ( The lies became crazier and crazier). Trump lifted the hopes of his supporters by claiming that the FBI was finally doing its job so by the time the second letter came around exonerating Clinton, he could go back to claiming the system was "Rigged" - which motivated his supporters to vote.

3) And lastly the letter impacted Low information voters who would have been inundated with bullshit coverage about emails the final two weeks of the election.

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. True, and at the same time imagine a voter so

what is the word, "ignorant", that more information about a private server caused them to change their mind about the single most important thing they will do in their lifetimes.

Like Johnny Carson would always say "crazy stuff".



You see for me and most rational people, she could have had 200 private servers, not voting for her in the face of a possible Trump administration would be just about the stupidest thing anybody could do.

[groundloop]

22. Agreed... however there are many many people who simply don't pay much attention to politics

For most of the year they just go about daily survival, working, caring for their families, or whatever. During the last few weeks before an election it hits them that they need to figure out who they're voting for. Right about then they start hearing that the FBI might have some shit on Hillary, so their minds are made up by the repub lies.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. Republican trolls on Youtube reveal all...

Click on their name to go to their home page and you will see they are into movies or cars or sports or roller skating or ANYTHING other than politics.

Every four years they realize it's time to troll liberals and laugh as they make them cry.

[karynnj]

10. Comey was out of line with the two letters, but the root of all of that was HRC not giving the SD

the work emails when she left. She KNEW then that there was nothing in them to hurt her. Had she archived them throughout her term and left them in 2013, the SD would have responded to all the Congressional inqueries and to the FOIA requests. The Benghazi stuff would have ended some time in 2013. There would have been NO email scandal and it is very likely likely no one would ever have known how she processed her email.

Instead she stonewalled the Obama State Department for a year and a half - meaning people got mad at them for not producing the email which they did not have. When the story came out, she still had to change her story a few times - greatly harming her reputaation as to being honest and trustworthy.

Because "EMAIL" brought up all those bad stories, Comey reopening things 2 weeks before the election was horrible. However, had HRC turned the emails over quickly, none of that would have happened.

[JudyM]

32. Certainly true.

[Augiedog]

11. Let's be clear, that's COMRADE Comey!

[elmac]

12. Comey will always be remembered as

the agent of Moscow that cost ameriKa its freedom.

[ffr]

16. I wonder if there will come a time when we find out about how he hatched the idea.

He helped the Russian candidate for U.S. president in the process. Strange.

[Coyotl]

44. Doesn't Trump have a unit of ex-FBI suits surounding him?

What are their relationships of his private security force to Comey and Giulliani?

[totodeinhere]

50. So President Obama nominated a Russian agent to become FBI Director?

Amazing.

[FiveGoodMen]

71. Unfortunate, but why amazing?

[standingtall]

15. Yep Comey is one of the

many shady reasons we lost this election along with Russian interference,voter suppression,cross check and even possible hacking on election day itself. The biggest mistake Obama made was trusting a republican by promoting James Comey. See how that worked out. He stabbed Obama and over half of the country in the back. This should be a lesson going forward. Republicans cannot be trusted.

[BeyondGeography]

17. Whatever, Bill...anything to make Comey squirm is fine by me

He disgraced himself, and now as long as there are Clinton loyalists in the world (a long time), he'll be looking over his shoulder, and that's good.

[cornball 24]

18. draCOMEYian!

[bucolic_frolic]

19. The election was rigged

how fair is that, Donald Trump?

[JI7]

21. i could feel a change with the comey letter

But it was more in the way the media reported it.

Most people don't pay attention to details but they see it's the top thing being reported. They hear FBI and think it must be really bad and really serious.

They WAYYYY over did it but with the low info types it works.

[DesertFlower]

28. she was a great candidate and more than

qualified. unfortunately 30 years of right wing lies hurt her too.

that being said -- people are stupid -- they're more impressed with celebrity.

[pstokely]

30. if people are impressed by celebrity, DC will be a ghost turn down the tRump inauguration

celebrity HRC surrogates didn't help either

[Paladin]

29. Enjoy your stay. (nt)

[Plucketeer]

36. I wouldn't be so quick

to say "goodbye" in snarky fashion. Trump won with a populist facade. WE HAD a GENUINE Populist who was generating authentic excitement, but he was under the bus before he or anyone else realized it. He'd have mopped the floor with the Donald, but instead, we got a corporate marionette for our own Punch 'n Judy show.

Of course, I, like so many others, clung to the hope HRC would prevail over the village idiot. And surely, Comey helped quash our hopes. But that god damned DWS and the clowns that harmonized with her - they bear as much of the blame for president Trump as ANYONE.

[JHan]

47. How about for once progressives owned up to the nonsense as well?

I'm sure "corporate marionette" and the assorted names like "corporate shill" , "sell out" etc etc really helped our cause didn't it?

And now we have a real corporate vulture about to enter the WH...

And the rest of it - attacking "the establishment" in an incumbent year, that was marvelously effective wasn't it?

Because this year was no anomaly, this wasn't a normal year of politics and we ritualistically did what we ritualistically do so often- we attack each other and tear each other down : we did it in 2000, we don't show up for mid terms when we're "Uninspired" , we're obsessed with presidential elections. Naw I'm happy sharing blame among leftist ranks for the nonsense that took place this year. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so either....

"Progressives have no one to blame but themselves for the lack of a progressive government and policies. No one. They bitch and moan about not having FDR-like progress but refuse to give Democratic Presidents FDR-like majorities in Congress. They bitch and moan about the government failing them but they don’t do anything about making sure the party that hates and wants the government to fail from getting and wielding power. They pursue idealistic policy ideas without building the political infrastructure necessary to implement them. Too many have a fucked up political and moral calculus where they think a candidate who supports their causes 75% of the time is the same as one who supports them 0% of the time. Most of all, too damn many progressives refuse to acknowledge their role in all of this and make any changes. If you claim to be a progressive and your top priority isn’t keeping conservatives out of government, then you are as much the problem as conservatives for the government we have. I emphatically said this same thing after the 2010 midterms. I said it again in 2014 when progressives stayed home and let the GOP take the Senate. I’m pretty sure, I’m going to say the same thing again in a few years.

I keep being told I’m not supposed to be critical of my fellow progressives. I’m not supposed to say anything that hurts their feelings because they’re “part of my team.” Really? Have you ever been on a competitive team? You think players don’t go off on other players when they screw up, don’t follow the game plan? Damn right they do. Society, politics is a team game. When things don’t go the way you think they should, you don’t take your ball, go home, and bitch about it. You stay, fight, and learn some valuable lessons. If you are such a hothouse, precious orchid you can’t handle criticism, then don’t play the game. What you don’t get to do is decide you don’t want to play the game but bitch about how it is being played. No sideline kibitzing is allowed. What won’t be tolerated, what won’t go unanswered are people on the team not working towards the same goal, not supporting their teammates, intentionally undermining the team. My motto is, “If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Don’t be part of the fucking problem.” This applies to progressives, as well. The problem right now in America is conservative ideology, conservative power, conservative policies. Period. Full…fucking…stop. You are either helping end these or you are part of the problem. Don’t be part of the fucking problem. Get out and vote for Democratic candidates in local, state, and federal elections. I don’t care if they don’t meet your purity standards. You don’t have the luxury of being picky when you don’t have power. Once you get the power and have healthy majorities, then, and only then, can you start weeding out the less progressive members and replace them with more progressive ones. Anything that doesn’t adhere to this strategy is nothing but noise and not worth thinking about, let alone pursuing."

http://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153947197225/on-progressive-politics-its-the-strategy-stupid

Wistful ruminations about a preferred candidate not winning doesn't cut it frankly.

[Plucketeer]

53. The blinders you wear so dutifully?

They were fitted to you for a purpose that doesn't involve your opinions whatsoever.

[JHan]

54. I vote dutifully but I don't follow politics*blindly...

And this year I knew what was at stake. If I could understand and millions of others resembling me did as well, folks have no excuse.

this year was a no brainer with these pressing issues on the platform:

The Supreme Court
criminal justice reform
expansion/fixing of healthcare
focus on STEM in education ( critical for our future prospects)
tech expansion and support for tech startups
Investment in renewables , building on progress made to counter climate change
.. and all the myriad other policies to help parents, students in low income bracket etc etc, tackling wage stagnation and income disparity... I lost track of the ideas I liked on HRC's platform, some were surprising and creative.

So my blinders weren't on, I'm pretty clear eyed about politics.

[radical noodle]

57. Truth x 1000

Thank you JHan! This gets to the heart of it.

[yardwork]

61. Exactly.

[calguy]

33. Tired of hearing about Hillary being a "bad" candidate

That is just so much bullshit for me. For those who say they couldn't vote for her because she wasn't their perfect candidate. You had someone on the other side you should have voted against, and that should have more than outweighed whatever it was about her that you couldn't vote for.

[rpannier]

41. I don't think she was a bad candidate

Though I think there were issues for her being the candidate at this time
She could have (should have) overcome that with a vice-presidential candidate that didn't seem so much like her
For all the jokes we made of Pence, he was in good standing with the evangelical base of the party and that helped to make Il Douchebag acceptable
Kaine seemed too much like her; DLC member, favored free-trade and then suddenly came out opposed to the TTP, etc

There were acceptable candidates she could have chosen to ignite a portion of the voters she needed and were skeptical of her

[pstokely]

46. maybe not a bad candidate, but maybe a bad campaign

complacent campaign made of a lot of strategic mistakes

[yardwork]

63. I disagree.

[yardwork]

62. The entitled poor losers lost us the election and now we all have Trump.

[SunSeeker]

25. K & R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. Getting tied to NAFTA had NOTHING to do with it.

[Sancho]

38. Comey is a traitor...

he knew about the Russians, knew the emails were nothing, and set out to alter an election.

He is the one who should be in jail.

[RustyWheels]

40. Don't Forget the Meeting

Yes but.... If Bill doesn't meet with AG Lynch on her plane in CA, then she doesn't recuse herself from the decision of whether or not to prosecute HRC, which then left Comey to be the spokesperson to public. Without Bill's screw-up at the airport, AG Lynch would have been the one giving the press conference on FBI's finding (or lack thereof) and the decision not to prosecute, as there was no evidence of any wrong doing. And Comey stays in the background and doesn't get the chance to publicly bash Hillary. Bill's got no one to blame but himself for this one - you don't go "chitchat" with the AG when your wife is under investigation by the FBI.

[spin]

45. I hate to agree with you but I have to admit that Bill meeting AG Lynch in a clandestine...

meeting in an airport really looked bad.

I heard a lot of conservatives say it was obvious that the fix was in. Hillary would walk away scot-free and Lynch would get a seat on the Supreme Court as payback.

[PoliticAverse]

52. BTW she just made some more comments on that meeting and her regret...

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/18/politics/loretta-lynch-james-comey-bill-clinton/index.html

[moonscape]

55. Good point. And welcome to DU. n/t

[StevieM]

58. Actually, we don't know for sure if Comey wouldn't have found a reason to hold that news conference.

And he certainly might have gone ahead and sent a letter to Congress anyway, even if Loretta Lynch had been more outspoken about it.

[Rex]

42. He did violate his office.

Not that that has ever been a crime for a C-level of his caliber.

Welcome to the FBI, some folks misconceptions about the department have finally been shattered.

[wisteria]

43. And, he cost the rest of us a great President - the first Female President.

[hamsterjill]

48. Bill Clinton is the smartest and most astute politician there is.

If he says it, I believe it.

[chwaliszewski]

49. There was all kinds of shady things going on from all sides...

but the bottom line is Hillary was not blameless in this electoral debacle. Time for us to go back to the old drawing board.

[dawn frenzy adams]

56. No Bill! Voter supression and hacking cost Hilary the election.

The whole world knows about our crooked elections. I live in Ohio. Reporters from all over the world descended on Ohio in 2008. Not because history was being made with the election of the first black president. They were investigating our fraudulent elections. There has been 16 years of begging and pleading of the Democrats to stand up against election fraud. They have consistently refused. We have attorneys here in Ohio still working for justice. Overwhelming evidence continues to be ignored. This is the 3rd presidential election that has been stolen. There is also ample evidence that there was theft during the 2010 and 2014 primaries. Since the Democrats won't do anything, that leaves you and I. You can start by stating that Trump did not win the election. Because, legally, he did not.

[McKim]

67. Election Meddling and Voter Surpession Were the Causes

Election meddling and voter suppression was what ruined this election for us. And, a war weary people were nervous about Hillary's vote for the Iraq War authorization. This has not been brought up here. i know in my state this was decisive. Republicans created the perfect storm and the cornerstone was interfering with an honest election. This was death by a thousand cuts. I happened to stumble onto some Utube sites that had the most horrible, hateful and bizarre videos against Hillary. They were full of disgusting lies. They were creepy. This garbage is out there folks and with the rise of truthiness, some will believe this stuff.

[hollowdweller]

59. I think the private email server was the biggest contributing factor

I mean Benghazi had pretty much run it's course by the election. There wasn't anything really there and the public was worn out about it.

The email issue dogged her right up till the end. I'm sure she thought having control over them somehow protected her, but in the end I think it was the campaigns achilles heel and after a while the GOP found it. Also the fact that she deleted a bunch of them before she turned them over. I understand those were just personal ones but the fact that they apparently did that without oversight of any third party sort of allowed the GOP to sort of use it to sort of cloud the facts a bit in their favor.

[recount now]

65. where was comey in 2010, 2014

and senate races in 2016? I don't think voters in western pennsylvania and eastern ohio said I was going to vote for mrs.Clinton despite her statements on the coal industry ;but because of the comey letter and russian hacking now I will have to vote for trump. I don't think so. Michael Moore tried to warn the clinton campaign what was happening in michigan ;but "they" knew better then moore.

[pstokely]

66. without Comey, she might have squeaked it out narrowly

complacent campaign made it weak enough to be hurt by any little thing

[hughee99]

69. If that's the case (and it certainly could be), the complacent campaign was the issue, not

what may have happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Many of the "low information voters" I've talked with since the election didn't even know anything about the letter just before the election. Some voted for Clinton, some voted for Trump, Johnson or Stein, but without having a race for Governor or Senate in MA, many just stayed home. It sort of felt like the election commercials (the one thing they really couldn't avoid, since they come on during other tv shows) trying to convince voters that Clinton was corrupt or Trump was incompetent just convinced them that neither one of them was worth voting for.

[StevieM]

74. I think her appearance with Al Gore in Florida made it clear that she knew she could lose and that

it might be a very close race where every voted counted.

I don't believe she was complacent. That is the post-election spin, along with a whole lot of other incorrect analyses.

[man on the moonshine]

68. 100% Agreement

I'd tell you what I'd like to see done with Mr. Comey, but I'd get banned within 60 seconds!

[backscatter712]

70. I don't ever want to hear a Democrat talk "Team of Rivals" again.

Next time we're in power, purge EVERY SINGLE Republican from all appointed positions in government. Leave none behind.

[pressbox69]

72. The FBI needs to be investigated.

Comey needs to go. Then it's time to remove Trump from office.

[Sorceress]

73. And he is 100% correct. People can get in their feelings all they want.

This is what I've seen and felt from the moment that slimy, used car salesman Jason Chaffetz released Comey's letter. We can point to several obstacles and questionable tactics by the Clinton campaign. That's fine but Hillary was weathering the storm. However, the rehashing of this emails investigation by Comey was what turned the tide. All of the momentum left the building and there was nothing Hillary could do. It left Hillary defenseless and allowed the Trump campaign to take it and create their own facts. I can feel myself seething just thinking about it. Comey should be brought up on charges. I am dead serious.

I don't think we should be so quick to blame ourselves. We were robbed. Point blank. Period.

[Sunlei]

75. didn't help. What did Ds expect from Republican party of birther crap, nazi luv and fox lies?

[napi21]

77. USA Today has an article that pretty much confirms this. An attorney from Calif. via the FOIA

requested a copy of the information that convinced Comey to notify congress & AND THE PUBLIC they were reopening the "email mess" because there might be proof of a crime on a laptop. I don't know why, but the web site doesn't permit copying, but here's a link.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/20/fbi-warrant-gives-little-new-light-clinton-emails-comey-letter/95651778/

[complain jane]

79. There were many factors, but this didn't help her any. n/t

[complain jane]

80. I think the biggest problem

was the right's assault on her character for years, fed to vaster-than-expected mass of people who need someone to hate to distract them from the reality that they are being led to vote against their own best interests.