Hillary Clinton’s staff is still furious over her loss, and more than anything, they blame former President Barack Obama.
The camps are clashing over the heated blame game. Clinton’s side insists Obama was the biggest reason she lost, according to Clinton staffers that spoke with Axios.
They think his lack of support was more harmful than her scandals, Russian interference in the election or FBI Director James Comey’s investigation.
Obama didn’t do enough, wasn’t active enough and should have been much less cautious in imposing sanctions on Russia, Clinton’s camp said.
“The White House was like everyone else: They thought she’d win anyway,” a member of Clinton’s campaign told Axios. “If he had done more, it might have lessened a lot of aggrieved feelings, although I don’t think it would have altered the outcome. The Russia thing was like a spy novel, and anything he said or did would have helped get people to believe it was real.”
Obama doesn’t seem to feel the same way about an election that should have been “an easy layup of a win.”
An Obama aide told Axios the White House didn’t come out harshly against Russia because they didn’t want to be seen as politicizing the hacks and using them to grandstand. If they had done so, the aide said, cooperation with Republicans on the state level would have “collapsed.”
He previously made a perceived dig at Clinton in a White House press conference Nov. 14 — six days after her loss to now-President Donald Trump. “I won Iowa not because the demographics dictated that I would win Iowa. It was because I spent 87 days going to every small town and fair and fish fry and VFW Hall, and there were some counties where I might have lost, but maybe I lost by 20 points instead of 50 points,” Obama said. “There’s some counties maybe I won, that people didn’t expect, because people had a chance to see you and listen to you and get a sense of who you stood for and who you were fighting for.”
Clinton lost Iowa to Trump 41.7 percent to 51.1 percent, according to Ballotpedia. Obama won Iowa in both 2008 and 2012.
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