No one likes to admit they’re wrong. When a mistake happens, many of us find it easier to use confirmation bias and twist the truth. Other times we might try to justify our errors. It allows us an escape from a damaged ego, even when the facts are right in front of us. There are cases of this happening every day. One such case is Hillary Clinton.
Clinton’s book tour and comments since her stinging electoral defeat in November are clear cases of denial. She truly believes she had no faults and that external factors derailed her while she was on her path to be elected president.
Clinton’s new book, simply titled “What Happened,” is her testimony of the 2016 campaign. As you might expect if you heard any of her recent statements, the former Secretary of State absolves herself from any blame.
She blames James Comey, the FBI director at the time, for his Oct. 28 letter announcing a reopening of the investigation into her private email service. The election took place Nov. 2 and Clinton believes Comey swayed voters away from her. According to her, “Absent that, I believe the evidence shows I would’ve won.”
She blames her main opponent in the Democratic primaries, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) for not unifying the Democratic Party fast enough for her. In her book, she writes that Sanders “had to resort to innuendo and impugning my character.” She thinks Sanders made her look like an elitist with close ties to Wall Street, ensuring that his legions of young voters would never fully back her.
She blames the media for bad coverage of her campaign. According to Clinton, Democrats were at a “disadvantage” with being covered by the press and they don’t “control the media the same way the right does.” She takes aim at The New York Times for having “schizophrenic” coverage that focused on her email server.
Lastly, she blames sexism and misogyny. As she puts it: “Sexism and misogyny played a role in the 2016 presidential election. Exhibit A is a flagrantly sexist candidate.”
Each of these arguments has overwhelming flaws. With regard to Comey, the investigation only occurred in the first place because as Secretary of State, Clinton was using a private email server when she shouldn’t have been.
Her attempt to deflect the issue by saying she merely wanted one device and one personal email for “convenience” was discredited the moment the FBI revealed that there were 13 mobile devices connected with her two phone numbers and the email server.
An aide destroyed the old mobile devices by “breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer.” If she had not been so secretive, then there would have been no need for Comey to send a letter on October 28 to Congress stating he was opening the investigation again to see if any additional classified information was found.
Maybe the challenge from Sanders would not have been so difficult had she not been the corrupt elitist she really is. Those leaked speeches she gave to firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley don’t make her sound like a champion of the people.
Whining about the media is an absolute joke. The New York Times was doing its job when it reported negative news about Clinton. In analyzing the 2016 election, respected political scientist Nate Silver did find that there was a liberal media bubble. It often underestimated Trump’s chances. This election was divided between middle America and the very liberal coasts.
There’s very little political diversity among journalists. Just 7.1 percent are Republicans. Silver also notes that our modern political news industry has become centered in New York City and Washington D.C., two very liberal hubs. A Harvard study by professor Thomas E. Patterson concluded that Trump had to deal with more negative news coverage than Clinton.
Clinton’s claims of sexism in 2016 are just as ridiculous. If you look at Gallup’s data over the 20th century, the number of people who’ve said they’re willing to vote for a woman for office has increased from 33 percent in 1937 to 92 percent in 1999. Both parties are represented by many female politicians. Trump himself had a female campaign manager. No one cares about whether a woman is qualified for office anymore because virtually everyone knows they are.
If you want to find a superb way to waste money, Clinton’s book tour includes a visit to the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. Maybe it will dawn on her that she actually should’ve visited the state a few times rather than thinking it (and the election itself) was going to be a cakewalk.
John Graber ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and political science.
