Hillary Clinton blames James Comey, FBI for presidential election loss

WASHINGTON  — Hillary Clinton is blaming the FBI's decision to revive its examination of her email accounts for her devastating defeat in the presidential race.

On a call with top campaign donors, Clinton says her campaign had been winning the race against Donald Trump until FBI director James Comey's letter to Congress.

The letter sent on Oct. 28 announced that the FBI had uncovered emails possibly related to its earlier probe into Clinton's use of a private server as secretary of state.

Trump's campaign and Republican supporters seized on the news, even though it was unclear whether Clinton's correspondence was tied up in the probe.

While Clinton accepted some of the blame for her loss, according to donors who listened to her call, she made little mention of the other factors driving Trump's victory: A desire for change by voters, possible sexism, the difficulty of a political party winning a third White House term, her campaign's all-but-dismissal of white working class voters and flaws within her own message.

Donors on the call were not authorized to discuss her comments by name and requested anonymity to describe them to The Associated Press.