Hillary Clinton harbors no doubts that political allies of Donald Trump astutely “guided” the release of hacked e-mails by WikiLeaks and the planting of fake news in order to sabotage her, she tells David Remnick in a long interview. In a new book, “What Happened,” Clinton is by turns angry, accusatory, and apologetic about the 2016 election and its outcome. She describes the infiltration by Russia as a “clear and present danger” to the electoral process that Republicans should take as seriously as Democrats; Putin could, she points out, just as easily turn on Trump. Clinton tells Remnick that the media failed voters by focussing coverage on scandals rather than on policies; she also analyzes how sexism affected voters as they judged a woman who sought the highest office in the land, wishes that President Obama had acted more forcefully on what was known about Russian involvement, and lays out a plan for diplomatic efforts to address the North Korea nuclear crisis. A resolution is possible, Clinton believes, but she worries that “nobody’s home at the State Department. There isn’t anybody to really guide a strategic approach to North Korea, as opposed to tweeting and speechifying.”
