Hillary Clinton takes the blame for her 2016 presidential defeat in her upcoming book but offers choice words for President Donald Trump, her campaign rivals, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Clinton writes in “What Happened” that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders caused “lasting damage” to her presidential campaign and pushes back against the notion raised by Vice President Joe Biden that she didn't campaign forcefully enough for middle-class voters.

“I go back over my own shortcomings and the mistakes we made. I take responsibility for all of them. You can blame the data, blame the message, blame anything you want but I was the candidate,” she writes. “It was my campaign. Those were my decisions.”

CNN reported on Wednesday that it purchased a copy of the book in Jacksonville, Florida ahead of its September 12 release date.

In the book, Clinton says she miscalculated “how quickly the ground was shifting under all our feet” and tried to run a traditional campaign “while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans' anger and resentment.”

During the primary, Clinton writes that advisers often told her not to fight back against Sanders' criticism for fear of alienating his supporters.

She says “his attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump's 'Crooked Hillary' campaign.”

As the campaign moved along, she says then-FBI Director James Comey's probe into her private email server, including his late-October decision to issue a letter to Congress on the investigation, disrupted the image of her as a strong leader.

Clinton questions whether a stronger response from President Barack Obama to reports of Russian meddling in the election might have made a difference. And she writes with regret that she never got the chance to confront Putin in person.

“There's nothing I was looking forward to more than showing Putin that his efforts to influence our election and install a friendly puppet had failed,” she writes.

“I know he must be enjoying everything that's happened instead. But he hasn't had the last laugh yet.”

Clinton's previous books include her 2003 memoir, “Living History,” published while she was a US senator from New York, and 2014's “Hard Choices,” her account of her time as secretary of state.

Opinion

Editorial

Geopolitical games
Updated 18 Dec, 2024

Geopolitical games

While Assad may be gone — and not many are mourning the end of his brutal rule — Syria’s future does not look promising.
Polio’s toll
18 Dec, 2024

Polio’s toll

MONDAY’s attacks on polio workers in Karak and Bannu that martyred Constable Irfanullah and wounded two ...
Development expenditure
18 Dec, 2024

Development expenditure

PAKISTAN’S infrastructure development woes are wide and deep. The country must annually spend at least 10pc of its...
Risky slope
Updated 17 Dec, 2024

Risky slope

Inflation likely to see an upward trajectory once high base effect tapers off.
Digital ID bill
Updated 17 Dec, 2024

Digital ID bill

Without privacy safeguards, a centralised digital ID system could be misused for surveillance.
Dangerous revisionism
Updated 17 Dec, 2024

Dangerous revisionism

When hatemongers call for digging up every mosque to see what lies beneath, there is a darker agenda driving matters.