Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a group of donors she believes Russian President Vladimir Putin contributed to her presidential election loss, The New York Times and CNN report.
Clinton told donors during a meeting at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan that Russia attempted to “undermine our democracy” by hacking into the emails of the Democratic National Commitee and former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, according to the Times. She said Putin ordered the hacks “because he has a personal beef against me.”
“Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” Clinton said, according to the Times.
“This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country,” Clinton added. “We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”
Clinton repeated her claim that a letter sent by FBI Director James Comey to Congress contributed to her loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
Podesta called out the FBI in an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Thursday, comparing its “lackadaisical response” to the Russian hacking with its extensive investigation into Clinton’s emails.
Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million, but was defeated in key states by Trump, who won 306 electoral votes.
Read more from The New York Times here.
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