It’s been almost four months since the results of the presidential election. As we all know, Donald Trump won the election and Hillary Clinton lost—and some of us are still mourning the outcome. Regardless, Clinton has her own theory on why she lost the election. As it turns out, Clinton believes that there are a few factors that led to her loss.
At Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit in New York City on Thursday, Clinton had her first interview since her election loss, with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Clinton revealed that she believes misogyny was one of the main factors in her defeat. Yes, misogyny is alive and well.
“The more successful a man is, the more likeable he becomes,” Clinton told Kristof. “With a woman, guess what, it’s the exact opposite.” She added, “The more successful, and therefore ambitious, a women is, the less likeable she becomes.” It’s ridiculous that some people still believe that women aren’t capable of holding powerful positions. Seriously it’s 2017, people.
Clinton isn’t the only one who believes misogyny had a negative effect on the election. Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, spoke alongside Clinton at the Women’s Conference. She said onstage, “The way that Hillary was talked about, the treatment that Hillary suffered at times, just seemed to me to have an air of misogyny about it, that I wanted to believe that we had moved on from,” according to The Telegraph.
Clinton didn’t just cite misogyny as causing the downfall of her campaign. She explained to Kristof that James Comey’s involvement, WikiLeaks and the opposition’s collusion with Russia also contributed to the election results.
Clinton accused Russia of “an act of aggression” that “meddled with our election,” according to NBC News. The U.S. House and Senate Intelligence Committees have been investigating Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.
FBI Director James Comey’s involvement in the election is practically self-explanatory. Comey said he was examining more emails related to the FBI investigation of Clinton’s private server, less than two weeks before Election Day. Clearly that announcement and its timing were not in Clinton’s favour. When the election was only two days away, Comey announced there wouldn’t be any criminal charges, NBC News reports.
While Comey, Russia and WikiLeaks may have contributed to Clinton’s defeat, Samantha Bee also believes that misogyny had an immense impact on the election’s outcome. During the Women in the World Summit, the comedian gave a heartfelt speech to introduce Clinton. She said, “I’m only gonna say this once, though you deserve to hear it 100 times. It should have been you.”
“I thought—and I feared—that you being elected would unleash a wave of misogyny in the U.S., but we’ve seen that that happened anyway,” Bee continued. I feel you, Sam, I feel you.
After all, Clinton has decades of political experience. She served as a U.S. senator for eight years, and dedicated four years of her career as the Secretary of State. Yet somehow she lost to a man with zero political experience, a businessman with questionable moral integrity, who bankrupted several businesses. Does Trump Vodka ring any bells? But misogyny definitely didn’t play a part in the election—yep, none whatsoever.