Bill Clinton: Hillary 'couldn't prevail' over Russians, FBI
ALBANY - Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that Hillary Clinton "couldn't prevail" against Russian hackers and the FBI in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
While President-elect Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote overall Monday, Bill Clinton headlined the list of 29 New York electors who officially cast their ballot at the state Capitol, where hushed onlookers and state dignitaries quietly made their support for Hillary Clinton official.
Afterward, Clinton acknowledged the vote for his wife was bittersweet given her loss in the general election.
"Yeah, but I've never cast a vote I was prouder of," he told reporters.
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Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and New York senator, cruised to a win in the state she calls home, picking up 58 percent of the vote in the Empire State.
But it wasn't enough: She lost the general election to President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 8, despite winning the popular vote.
Bill Clinton praised the work his wife did on the campaign trail, laying blame for her defeat on Russian hackers who intelligence officials believe targeted Clinton's campaign and the FBI's brief re-opening of its investigation into the Clintons' private email server.
He noted she won the popular vote by a margin of more than 2 million ballots.
"I've watched her battle through that bogus email deal and be vindicated at the end," said Clinton, who wore a lapel pin of his wife's campaign logo.
"She fought through everything, and she prevailed against it all. But, you know, with the end, we had the Russians and the FBI deal, which she couldn't prevail against that."
Clinton, who lives with his wife in Chappaqua, topped the list of New York electors, which also included a slate of top state dignitaries, labor leaders and elected officials.
Shortly before noon, Clinton entered the state Senate chamber to a standing ovation, smiling as he shook hands and made small talk as he walked to his seat.
He stopped briefly to kiss the top of elector Anastasia Somoza's head. A longtime disability rights activist, Somoza first met Clinton in 1993 at the age of 9, when she asked him a question on national television about mainstreaming children with disabilities in classrooms.
One by one, the electors followed the former president in quietly casting their ballots for Hillary Clinton, dropping them in a slot in a locked, wooden box.
As required by the New York election, all 29 electors voted for Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine, the senator from Virginia.
Bill Clinton received repeated ovations in the ornate Senate chamber, where he appeared loose and in good spirits.
He sat silently throughout the proceeding, occasionally fiddling with pair of bottled waters and a leather-bound folder sitting on his desk.
As electors cast their votes, he leaned over to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, chatting with the Buffalo Democrat and showing her photos of his grandchildren on his phone.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who served as president of the New York Electoral College, praised Clinton for showing up to the vote. Like many other electors, Cuomo had said the moment was best described as "bittersweet."
"We're honored to call you a friend, and we're honored you call New York home," Cuomo said.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said it was difficult to cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton knowing that she wasn't elected as president.
"It was a very difficult vote because Hillary Clinton has done a lot for this country and a lot for the state of New York," Warren said.
Among the other New York electors were Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
All states except Maine and Nebraska convened electors Monday to officially cast their votes in the Electoral College.
New York is tied with Florida for the third most electoral votes in the nation, behind California and Texas.
The number of electors is the total of each state's two U.S. senators and its members of Congress, which in New York is 27.
The electors meet in their respective states 41 days after the election, and they cast two ballots: one for president and one for vice president.
Protesters and opponents of the Electoral College gathered in states throughout the country that Trump won, hoping to pressure electors face a fine or penalty to back a candidate other than the president-elect.
In New York, protesters gathered in the frigid cold outside the Capitol, speaking out against Trump's presidency and the Electoral College system as a whole.
"I am here today to get my country back," said Rosemarie Sheperd, 73, of Johnstown, Fulton County. "I am very, very upset about this election. The people by 3 million votes backed Hillary Clinton."
The actual margin was about 2.86 million, according to the Cook Political Report's Popular Vote Tracker, which has Clinton at 65,844,594 and Trump at 62,979,616. Trump won on electoral votes by winning more states despite losing the popular vote.
JSpector@Gannett.com
JCampabell1@Gannett.com
Joseph Spector and Jon Campbell write for USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau.