Hillary Clinton is unloading on Democrats in her new memoir, angering some Democratic Party officials in the process.
Excerpts from Clinton’s 2016 campaign memoir, What Happened, which is set to be released next week, show Clinton venting her frustrations about working with some of the Democratic Party’s most powerful figures leading up to her eventual defeat to President Trump.
In one passage, Clinton says former President Obama put her in a “straightjacket” when he told her to refrain from attacking her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in the Democratic primary over fears it would divide the Democratic Party heading into the general election.
Clinton wrote in another passage that she did not like that former Vice President Joe Biden told her that she did not adequately address how the Democratic Party would help the middle class.
Clinton also mocked Sanders’ policy proposals as “pie-in-the-sky” endeavors and called his supporters sexist.
The former 2016 Democratic presidential nominee also complained that Sanders’ attacks during the primary did “lasting damage” to her shot at winning the general election, even going so far as to accuse Sanders of aiding Trump.
Sanders responded to Clinton’s criticism Wednesday by simply saying Democrats need to “look forward, not backward.” But others in the party have not been so forgiving of her statements.
“The best thing she could do is disappear,” one former Clinton fundraiser and surrogate who played an active role at the convention told the Hill. “She’s doing harm to all of us because of her own selfishness. Honestly, I wish she’d just shut the f— up and go away.”
Clinton has blamed several people and groups for her 2016 election loss, including former FBI Director James Comey, the Russians, the press, Obama, and the Democratic National Committee. But what remains to be seen in this book is whether she takes any responsibility for losing the election.