Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton joked on Thursday that Vice President Harris has at least one major advantage over her own 2016 White House bid: no James Comey “waiting in the wings.”
Speaking with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the former New York senator was asked what Harris could do to avoid repeating Clinton’s fate of losing to Donald Trump. She said that at least Harris doesn’t have to deal with the former FBI director, who infamously announced days before the election that he was reopening the investigation into Clinton’s private email server from her time as secretary of state.
“First of all, I don’t think she has Jim Comey waiting in the wings to kneecap her, so that’s good,” Clinton said. “I think she is doing what she needs to do.”
Many Democrats to this day blame Comey for Trump’s defeat of Clinton, who had been leading him in the polls in the weeks leading up to the 2016 vote. His reopened investigation was one of the biggest stories of the campaign, though it ultimately resulted in no charges.
The former first lady also discussed Harris’s platform, saying she still faces a double standard in the race even though there has been progress for women in politics.
“There is almost a default in the press where people go back and say, ‘OK, well, at least Harris is trying to answer questions, and she is putting out real policy so let‘s go pile on her and make sure we know exactly what she‘s talking about,’” she said.
Clinton added that it is “rare” for the press to go after Trump in a similar manner.
The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s aggregate polls currently show Harris leading the former president by 1 percentage point. The contest is being considered one of the closest in modern history.
