Hillary Clinton’s new memoir “What Happened” hit booksellers’ shelves Tuesday, and the former presidential candidate is pairing the book’s release with a book tour. In Clinton’s candid account of the events that led to her loss in the 2016 presidential election, she seems to hold nothing back. Here are our top seven takeaways.
- She blames Bernie Sanders for Trump’s “Crooked Hillary” campaign
Clinton promised candor, and she delivered, calling out even people that supported her. She writes that Sanders’ attacks on her character during a debate “caused lasting damage,” and paved “the way for Trump’s “Crooked Hillary” campaign.”
2. She believes she would have won if not for James Comey
Clinton says in the book that if Comey hadn’t “been shivved by then-FBI Director James Comey,” then “everything would have been different.” She writes that he ” later said he was ‘mildly nauseous’ at the idea that he influenced the outcome of the election. Hearing that made me sick.”
3. There are glass ceilings yet to be broken
Clinton expected to accept the election to the presidency underneath a huge glass ceiling in New York, a symbol of shattering the glass ceiling that women face in the workplace. But that never happened, Clinton says, because “sexism and misogyny played a role in the 2016 presidential election. Exhibit A is that the flagrantly sexist candidate won.”
4. She regrets her speeches on Wall Street
Clinton admits responsibility for the bad “optics” of giving six-figure speeches to Wall Street crowds, which many Americans don’t trust. “I should have realized it would be bad ‘optics’ and stayed away from anything having to do with Wall Street. I didn’t. That’s on me,” she writes.
5. She thinks the email scandal was “dumb”
Clinton dedicates an entire chapter to the personal email server that sucked up so much air time during the campaign. “It was a dumb mistake,” she writes. “But an even dumber ‘scandal.’ It was like quicksand: the more you struggle, the deeper you sink.”
6. She goes in for Trump–obviously
Clinton spends plenty of time in her book talking about the man who beat her, but she doesn’t have to like it. She says he made her skin crawl during the second debate, and doesn’t believe he spends much time actually governing. “I sometimes wonder: If you add together his time spent on golf, Twitter, and cable news, what’s left?” she writes. She also writes that his campaign style was to “appeal to the ugliest impulses of our national character.”
7. She addresses why she stayed with Bill
Clinton knows you want to know why she didn’t leaver her husband and former president Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. “I don’t believe our marriage is anyone’s business… But I know that a lot of people are genuinely interested. Maybe you’re flat out perplexed,” she writes. “I asked myself the question that mattered most to me: Do I still love him? And can I still be in this marriage without becoming unrecognisable to myself-twisted by anger, resentment, or remoteness. The answers were always yes. So I kept going.”
