--- title: Hillary Clinton Blames Vladimir Putin and James Comey description: In a rare speech since the election, Hillary Clinton blamed FBI Director James Comey and Russian President Vladimir Putin for her loss. canonical: https://time.com/4604955/hillary-clinton-election-james-comey-vladimir-putin/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-16T17:15:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:20:46.876Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Says She Lost Because of James Comey and Vladimir Putin og:description: She said Putin has a "personal beef" with her og:url: https://time.com/4604955/hillary-clinton-election-james-comey-vladimir-putin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea26024cdea94d3a/6988b267cd1bba7b4e7035aa/hillary-clinton-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: hillary-clinton-fake-news og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Says She Lost Because of James Comey and Vladimir Putin twitter:description: She said Putin has a "personal beef" with her twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea26024cdea94d3a/6988b267cd1bba7b4e7035aa/hillary-clinton-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Says She Lost Because of James Comey and Vladimir Putin > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 16, 2016 5:15 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton concedes the presidential election at the New Yorker Hotel on Nov. 9, 2016 in New York City. Hillary Clinton concedes the presidential election at the New Yorker Hotel on Nov. 9, 2016 in New York City.Justin Sullivan—2016 Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 16, 2016 5:15 PM UTC In a rare post-election speech,[ Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/) blamed FBI Director James Comey and Russian President Vladimir Putin for her loss. “Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the FBI letter from Director Comey,” Clinton said to donors Thursday night, [the New York _Times_ reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/us/politics/hillary-clinton-russia-fbi-comey.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&%5Fr=0), referring to [Comey’s announcement](http://time.com/4549527/hillary-clinton-emails-fbi-reopen/?xid=homepage) 11 days before the election that the agency would be examining additional emails related to her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. On Russia, Clinton said the nation wanted to “undermine our democracy” and that Putin has a “personal beef” with her because she said the 2011 Russian parliamentary elections were rigged. “Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” she said. Clinton’s comments came as President Barack Obama vowed to “[take action](http://time.com/4604505/white-house-putin-dnc-hacking-election-russia-trump/?xid=homepage)” against Russia for its suspected attempts to interfere in the U.S. election. President-elect Donald Trump and his team have pushed back on the accusations against Russia, saying the focus on pre-election hacks are an attempt to undermine Trump. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4604955/hillary-clinton-election-james-comey-vladimir-putin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4604955/hillary-clinton-election-james-comey-vladimir-putin/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Says She Lost Because of James Comey and Vladimir Putin","datePublished":"2016-12-16T17:15:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:20:46.876Z","description":"She said Putin has a \"personal beef\" with her","url":"https://time.com/4604955/hillary-clinton-election-james-comey-vladimir-putin/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea26024cdea94d3a/6988b267cd1bba7b4e7035aa/hillary-clinton-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea26024cdea94d3a/6988b267cd1bba7b4e7035aa/hillary-clinton-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hillary-clinton-fake-news","caption":"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concedes the presidential election at the New Yorker Hotel on November 9, 2016 in New York City. 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