Hillary Clinton sums up ‘devastating’ loss to Trump on ‘The View,’ says she was ‘too serious’

Hillary Clinton has boiled down her 2016 loss to President Trump and campaign missteps down to two words: “too serious.”

The former secretary of state appeared on ABC’s “The View” this week to promote “The Book of Gutsy Women” with daughter Chelsea when the conversation pivoted to how one responds to failure.

Co-host Abby Huntsman asked about the “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve” reflections of losing a presidential race.

“I know that you’ve probably had many mornings when you wake up — and this book is all about being gutsy as women — and part of being gutsy is looking back and realizing what I could have done differently,” Ms. Huntsman said Wednesday. “When you look back at your campaign and what Democrats today might do differently, what goes through your mind? What do you wish you had done differently in that moment?”

“Well, I wrote a whole book about it because it was devastating,” Mrs. Clinton responded. “It was devastating as it was, I know, for the McCain family and your family [with Jon Huntsman in 2012]. … I’m a serious person but I’m also a fun person, but I think I probably came across as too serious,” she replied. “I really believed that my job, especially as a woman and the first woman to go as far as I did, that I had to help people feel good about a woman in the Oval Office, a woman commander-in-chief, and so I may have over-corrected a little bit because sometimes people say, well why can’t you be like that or why weren’t you like that.”

The Democrat added that caveat that circumstances beyond her control — statistical outliers — also contributed to her loss. 

“I really believe that there were unprecedented events in this election, the last election I mean, that were beyond my understanding and nearly anybody else’s. When we started talking in the summer of 2016 about the Russians, you know I think most of the press and the public goes ’what is she talking about?’ You know?”