Hillary Clinton’s team is reportedly blaming FBI director James Comey for her shocking loss to Donald Trump in the presidential election on Tuesday, November 8.
According to TheHill.com, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, communications director Jennifer Palmieri and several other aides participated in a private conference call on Thursday, November 10, to discuss potential reasons why the Democratic nominee, 69, lost to the ex–Celebrity Apprentice host, 70.
According to one anonymous Clinton surrogate who spoke with TheHill, Podesta said Comey, 55, is the person “who we think may have cost us the election” during the call.
The site reports that another unidentified aide of Clinton’s echoed a similar opinion. “We saw turnout down and didn’t do nearly as well as we thought. Something happened and it happened in a pretty steady way late in the race,” the aide said, according to their source.
As previously reported, Comey wrote in a letter to members of Congress on Friday, October 28, that the agency was taking “investigative steps” to reexamine Clinton’s private email server after discovering new emails.
In the letter, Comey said that “due to recent developments,” the case, which he had previously declared closed in July, would have to be reopened.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” the letter read. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
The new emails were reportedly discovered during an FBI investigation into disgraced politician Anthony Weiner — estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin — and his sexting scandal.
On Sunday, November 6, just two days before Election Day, Comey said the FBI had not discovered any information in the new emails that would change its original decision that Clinton should not be charged.
According to TheHill, Podesta also placed blame on the media for the Democratic party’s defeat during Thursday’s phone call.
“The media always covered her as the person who would be president and therefore tried to eviscerate her before the election, but covered Trump who was someone who was entertaining and sort of gave him a pass,” Podesta said. “We need to reflect and analyze that and put our voices forward.”
