Clinton blames FBI for her defeat

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has blamed FBI Director, James Comey for her defeat in Tuesday’s presidential election.

Hillary said that Comey’s decision to go public about reopening a probe into her private email server few days to the election cost her a huge number of supporters.

According to Reuters, Clinton disclosed this in a conference call with her top campaign funders on Saturday, according to two participants who were on the call.

Clinton was favoured to win by many polls, opinion leaders and even prophesies. However Republican candidate Donald Trump won the election to the dismay of many,  thereby sparking wide protests in the U.S.

Until the conference call, Clinton had kept a low profile after delivering her concession speech on Wednesday.

She told her funders that her team had examined the opinion polls and found that the turning point came after the FBI Director, Comey  announced the bureau was reopening  investigation on her email server.

Comey sent a letter to Congress only days before the election announcing that he was reinstating an investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information when she used a private email server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2012.

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 said Comey’s decision to go public with the renewed examination of her email server had caused an erosion of support in the upper Midwest, according to three people familiar with the call.

Clinton lost in Wisconsin, the first time since 1984 that the state favored the Republican candidate in a presidential election.

According to Reuters, Clinton told donors that Trump used Comey’s letter to attack her in the final build up to the polls.

Although a second letter cleared her of wrongdoing, Clinton argued that Trump’s allegation that the system was being rigged spurred more supporters in his favour on Election Day.

The memo prepared by 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 Trump than Clinton.

“In the end, late breaking developments in the race proved one hurdle too many for us to overcome,” the memo concludes.

A spokesperson for the FBI could not immediately be reached for comment.