![\"Hillary](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/13clinton-master768.jpg\")
<\/a>Hillary Clinton on Wednesday in New York. On Saturday, she told donors that the F.B.I. director\u2019s letter to Congress \u201cstopped our momentum.\u201d Credit Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/p><\/div>\n
\u00a0By AMY CHOZICK
\nThe New York Times<\/p>\n
Hillary Clinton<\/a> on Saturday cast blame for her surprise election loss on the announcement by the F.B.I.<\/a> director, James B. Comey, days before the election that he had revived the inquiry into her use of a private email server.<\/p>\n In her most extensive remarks since she conceded the race to Donald J. Trump early Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton told donors on a 30-minute conference call that Mr. Comey\u2019s decision to send a letter to Congress about the inquiry 11 days before Election Day had thrust the controversy back into the news and had prevented her from ending the campaign with an optimistic closing argument.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,\u201d Mrs. Clinton said, according to a donor who relayed the remarks. But, she added, \u201cour analysis is that Comey\u2019s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Clinton said a second letter from Mr. Comey, clearing her once again, which came two days before Election Day<\/a>, had been even more damaging. In that letter, Mr. Comey said an examination of a new trove of emails, which had been found on the computer of Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of one of her top aides, had not caused him to change his earlier conclusion that Mrs. Clinton should face no charges over her handling of classified information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Her campaign said the seemingly positive outcome had only hurt it with voters who did not trust Mrs. Clinton and were receptive to Mr. Trump\u2019s claims of a \u201crigged system.\u201d In particular, white suburban women who had been on the fence were reminded of the email imbroglio and broke decidedly in Mr. Trump\u2019s favor, aides said.<\/p>\n After leading in polls in many battleground states, Mrs. Clinton told the donors on Saturday, \u201cwe dropped, and we had to keep really pushing to regain our advantage, which going into last weekend we had.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were once again up in all but two of the battleground states, and we were up considerably in some that we ended up losing,\u201d Mrs. Clinton said. \u201cAnd we were feeling like we had to put it back together.\u201d<\/p>\n Presidential candidates have a long history of blaming forces outside their control for their losses. In 2004, John Kerry linked his defeat<\/a> to a videotape of Osama bin Laden that appeared days before the election, stoking fears about terrorism. In 2012, Mitt Romney told donors he had lost because President Obama had vowed to bestow \u201cgifts\u201d on Democratic special interests groups, namely African-Americans, Hispanics and young people.<\/p>\n Mrs. Clinton\u2019s contention appears to be more rooted in reality \u2014 and hard data. An internal campaign memo<\/a> with polling data said that \u201cthere is no question that a week from Election Day, Secretary Clinton was poised for a historic win,\u201d but that, in the end, \u201clate-breaking developments in the race proved one hurdle too many for us to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Clinton lost narrowly in several battleground states, and by the time all ballots are counted, she appears poised to win<\/a> the popular vote by more than two million votes.<\/p>\n Still, Mrs. Clinton\u2019s instinct to shun any personal responsibility angered some Democrats. Several donors on the call, while deeply bitter about Mr. Comey\u2019s actions, said they believed that Mrs. Clinton and her campaign had suffered avoidable missteps that handed the election to an unacceptable opponent. They pointed to the campaign\u2019s lack of a compelling message for white working-class voters and to decisions years ago by Mrs. Clinton to use a private email address at the State Department and to accept millions of dollars for speeches to Wall Street.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a special place in hell for Clinton staff, allegedly including Cheryl Mills, that okayed the email server setup,\u201d Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former senior aide to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, wrote on Sidewire<\/a>, a social media site, referring to a longtime aide and lawyer to Mrs. Clinton.<\/p>\n