In a recent interview with Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, former President Bill Clinton pointed to the mainstream media’s fixation on Hillary Clinton’s email controversy as a major reason for her 2016 presidential election loss. Clinton, promoting his new book Citizen, described his frustration and detailed his perspective on the media’s role in shaping public perception.
“It’s easier for us to know what happened in 2016 in some ways than it is what happened in 2024,” Clinton said, highlighting what he called “two highly unusual things” that contributed to the outcome. He accused mainstream media of amplifying the email issue beyond proportion. “The mainstream media told the American people repeatedly that the biggest issue was Hillary’s emails,” he said, emphasizing that this coverage overshadowed more substantive issues during the campaign.
Clinton argued that the controversy was blown out of proportion, asserting that “even the Trump State Department said she neither sent nor received a single solitary email on her personal device marked classified.” He further defended Hillary’s actions, stating, “She followed the rules as they then existed. The rules were changed after she left office.”
The former president’s remarks echo findings reported in a 2017 CNN analysis by Chris Cillizza, which underscored how the term “email” dominated voter perception of Hillary Clinton. Cillizza’s piece noted that references to the email controversy directly correlated with negative views of the Democratic candidate, overshadowing her policy positions and qualifications.
During Trump’s presidency, critics often mocked the continued focus on Hillary’s emails, using the phrase “but her emails” to highlight what they saw as hypocrisy or selective outrage over larger controversies within Trump’s administration.
Bill Clinton’s comments add to the ongoing debate about media influence on elections and the role narratives play in shaping public opinion.
