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Sarah Sanders on Clinton book: 'Sad'

Posted at 4:29 PM, Sep 12, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-12 16:29:00-04

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders slammed Hillary Clinton's new memoir Tuesday, accusing the former secretary of state with running "one of the most negative campaigns in history," adding that the book is a "sad way" for her to continue attacking President Donald Trump.

"I think it is sad that after Hillary Clinton ran one of the most negative campaigns in history and lost, and the last chapter of her public life is going to be now defined by propping up book sales with false and reckless attacks," she said during her daily briefing. "And I think that is sad way for her to continue this."

Sanders, who seemed prepared for the question, said she was unaware whether Trump is going to read the book, entitled "What Happened."

"I would think he is pretty well versed on what happened, and I think it is pretty clear to all of America," she said.

Clinton's post-2016 campaign memoir was officially released Tuesday. It's a nearly 500-page reflection on the 2016 campaign that heads plenty of blame on outside factors but finds Clinton facing up to many off the mistakes she made before her stunning loss to Trump.

Clinton signed books at a New York City Barnes & Noble on Tuesday afternoon, where supporters camped out overnight to be the first in line to meet the former Democratic nominee.

In the memoir, Clinton slams Trump as an ill-prepared president and suggests that his election was illegitimate, saying she lost primarily because of Russian intervention in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump and fired FBI Director James Comey's announcement days before the election that the bureau was re-opening (and then closing) their investigation into Clinton's emails.

But Clinton also takes her fair share of blame, coping to her inability to match Trump's anger and her failure to understand what the American electorate wanted. She also calls her decision to use a private email server campaign defining, but blames the media for blowing the story out of proportion.

"I think it's fair to say that I didn't realize how quickly the ground was shifting under all our feet," she writes. "I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions, while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans' anger and resentment."