Boo-hoo Hillary! Clinton claims she should be president… but Russia and FBI cost her

Mrs Clinton said she took full responsibility for her shock US election defeat to Donald Trump but said many voters were put off by events out of her control.

The former US Secretary of State made her most extensive comments to date about the stunning electoral upset during a Women For Women International charity luncheon in New York. 

She told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: “I take absolute personal responsibility. I was the candidate. I was the person on the ballot. 

“And I am very aware of, you know, the challenges, the problems, the, you know, shortfalls that we had.”

She said she was proud of her staff and the volunteers who contributed to her campaign, which she acknowledged “wasn’t a perfect campaign”.

Mrs Clinton said: “There is no such thing. But I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. 

“And the evidence for that intervening event is, I think, compelling, persuasive.

“And so we overcame a lot in the campaign. We overcame an enormous barrage of negativity, of false equivalency, and so much else.”

And referring to a well-respected US pollster, Mrs Clinton said: “As Nate Silver has concluded: if the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.”

She noted that her campaign chairman John Podesta’s hacked emails appeared on WikiLeaks less than an hour after the release of a 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Mr Trump bragged about sexual assault, catapulting his campaign into a downward spiral.

Mrs Clinton said: “What a coincidence! You just can’t make this stuff up. Did we make mistakes? Of course we did. Did I make mistakes? Oh my gosh, yes. You’ll read my confession and my request for absolution. 

“But the reason why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.”

Asked whether misogyny played a role in her defeat, she replies: “Yes, I do think it played a role. I think other things played a role, too.

“But misogyny is very much a part of the landscape politically, socially and economically”.

Mrs Clinton has largely stayed out of the limelight since her sock election defeat and her team insist her foray back into the public eye should not be taken as an indication she will seek political office once more. 

She vowed instead to use her voice to help Democrats and speak out against any actions under the Trump presidency she considers to be harmful.

She said: “I’m back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance.”