This article is 7 years old

Opinion

Comey is not why Clinton Lost

Hillary Clinton’s devastating and shocking loss has been attributed by some to the “Comey Effect.” However this assertion is dubious if we look closely at the turnout and other circumstances, such as the third party candidates. FBI director, James Comey, conducted an investigation on the former presidential candidate, surrounding potentially incriminating emails from her time as Secretary of State. After a lengthy investigation of these emails, the last of which were sent almost four years ago, it was determined that though some classified information had been leaked. Hillary did nothing illegal, and no harm had been done to the country.

Then on October 28, just eleven days before the election, Comey announced to Congress that the FBI would be reopening another investigation against Hillary surrounding emails that had been found on another computer, owned by Anthony Weiner, a former congressman and the estranged husband of Clinton’s chief campaign aide Huma Abedin. Trump went on to use the disclosure of a new set of emails to rally crowds when campaigning. A mere two days before the election, Comey cleared Clinton and no bombshells were found, but by unearthing controversies, Clinton lost the trust of some of her voters.

Since the election, Comey has been put under fire by media and journalists, who allege his actions violated policy and protocol, and may have cost Clinton the election. However, if you do the math, Clinton would have still lost the election regardless of Comey’s announcement.Trump would have one the popular vote in the battleground state of Florida by 36,600 votes and 12,600 votes in Pennsylvania. Losing the combined totals of Florida and Pennsylvania’s 49 electoral votes indicated Hillary could not have won enough electoral college votes to become president, even if Comey had kept his mouth shut. Further complicating the issue is the significant number of votes that went to third party candidates, the refusal of millions to vote, and not to mention Julian Assange’s Wikileaks about the DNC for which Comey cannot be blamed. While it may be comforting for democrats to blame Comey, they should look closely at their own campaign which failed to get its message across to millions of Americans. For Trump, Hillary’s second email scandal was merely the cherry on top of the sundae for his campaign.