May 2 (UPI) — Speaking in New York City on Tuesday, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said it’s fair to question President Donald Trump‘s legitimacy due to supposed Russian involvement in the election.
The former secretary of state made the remarks at a “Women for Women” event in New York City.
The reason Trump’s legitimacy can be questioned, she said, is because of repeated efforts by the Russian government to intercede in his behalf.
“Ask yourselves this: Within an hour or two of the [Access Hollywood] tape being made public, the Russian theft of [Clinton campaign manager] John Podesta‘s emails hit Wikileaks. What a coincidence,” she said.
Trump was heard making disparaging remarks about women on the tape, which was recorded in 2005 by “Access Hollywood,” during an interview with correspondent Billy Bush.
“So, you just can’t make this stuff up,” Clinton added. “Did we make mistakes? Of course we did. Did I make mistakes? Oh my gosh, yes. … But the reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events of the last 10 days.”
A big part of those last 10 days was an announcement by FBI Director James Comey that the bureau was looking into potential new evidence in the Clinton email investigation — an extremely rare move by a government agency that close to an election, and one that turned up no wrongdoing on Clinton’s part.
The former Democratic nominee has previously pinned part of the election loss on Comey’s decision and the WikiLeaks emails, which U.S. authorities believe were mined by Russian hackers.
“It wasn’t a perfect campaign — there is no such thing — but I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off,” Clinton said.
“If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.”
Though Trump won the electoral college by a national count of 304-227, Clinton won the actual popular U.S. vote — by more than 2 million ballots. She became the second Democratic candidate in 16 years — as well as the second candidate ever — to win the most votes but lose the presidency.
The former New York senator and first lady also said certain questions posed to her during some of the debates harmed the Democrats’ chances against Trump — and that she counts herself as part of the “resist” movement that opposes the current GOP administration.
Clinton said more details will be given in an upcoming memoir about her campaign, expected for release in September.
Her remarks Tuesday echoed similar sentiments expressed about a month ago in a similar interview, in which she expressed serious concern about Trump’s administration and the purported interference in the vote by Russia’s government.
“As a person, I’m OK. As an American, I’m pretty worried,” she said April 6. “There’s a lot to be concerned about.”
