David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, had harsh words for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while a guest on CNN’s New Day program on Wednesday morning.
While acknowledging that Clinton has a “narrow but legitimate belief” that James Comey, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had an impact on the end of her campaign by stating she was again under investigation regarding her computer server, Axelrod asserted that “it’s time to move on” and “it takes a lot of work to lose to Donald Trump.”
While the banner across the bottom of the television screen read “Clinton Blames Sexism, Russia and FBI Chief for 2016 Loss,” Axelrod stated:
Comey didn’t tell her not to campaign in Wisconsin after the convention, and he didn't say: “Don't put any resources into Michigan until the final week of the campaign.”
One of the things that hindered her in the campaign was a sense that she never fully was willing to take responsibility for her mistakes, particularly that server, … so if I were her, if I were advising her, I would say “Don’t do this. Don’t go back and appear as if you’re shifting responsibility.”
“She said the words ‘I’m responsible,’ but everything else suggested that she doesn’t really feel that way,” Axelrod continued, “and I don’t think that helps her in the long run, so if I were her, I would move on.”
At that point, co-host Alyson Camerota played part of an interview by CNN International anchor and far-left journalist Christiane Amanpour involving Clinton at an event in Manhattan on Tuesday for the Women for Women International organization.
“I take absolute personal responsibility," Clinton said. “I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot, and I am very aware of, you know, the challenges, the problems, the shortfall that we had.”
“Did we make mistakes?” she asked. “Of course we did. Did I make mistakes? Oh my gosh, yes! When you read my confession and my request for absolution, the reasons why I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.”
Camerota then asked Axelrod: “David, what do you think about the theory that she didn’t go further there and sort of flesh it out because she has a book out?” She said: “You’ll read my confession and my request for absolution as in, like, ‘Stay turned. That’s coming up’ in my book.”
“Well, look,” he replied, “I think she’d have been well served to stop it before she got to ‘but the reason I lost’ -- It takes a lot of work to lose to Donald Trump. Let me tell you, he was the least popular presidential candidate to win in the history of polling, and so, it wasn’t just the Comey letter.”
“The fact that she was in a position to lose because of the Comey letter is something that deserves some introspection, and maybe it’ll come in her book,” Axelrod continued, “but if I were her, I would let the book speak for itself and don’t get involved in these sidebar conversations.”
Clinton’s interview started a round of commentary on the 2016 campaign, with Trump tweeting late Tuesday that Comey was “the best thing that ever happened” to Clinton as he “gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!”
However, as NewsBusters previously reported, Amanpour served up 35 minutes of gushy softball questions to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, ranging from lashing out at the Trump administration to blaming misogyny and Comey for her loss.
The first question Amanpour asked was an obvious falsehood:
I was going to ask you what you made of the severe proposed cuts to the State Department, to the USAID budget and to the women's issues and platforms that you started, and what you make of the distinct lack of any women, most women, at the security and defense and peace table of this current administration?
This is false news, plain and simple. Perhaps the most outspoken and vocal member of the Trump administration’s foreign policy arm has been United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
In addition, K. T. McFarland has been on the national security team, and Fox News journalist Heather Nauert is the State Department spokeswoman.
As if that wasn’t transparent enough, Amanpour also asked: “What do you imagine your election as the first female president of the United States might have said to the world and to the women of the world who were looking for validation, for somebody to shatter that highest and hardest ceiling?”
Clinton responded: “It would have been a really big deal.”
Obviously, we’ll never know for certain since Republican Donald Trump won the White House instead.
