Hillary Clinton is set to make her final remarks on a historic election Wednesday, after losing her bid to become the first female president of the United States to rival Donald Trump.
Trump defied the polls Tuesday as he captured crucial victories over Clinton in several battleground states including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, as an ugly and divisive presidential election campaign came to an end.
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Clinton conceded the election in a personal phone call to Trump, who praised her for a hard-fought campaign in his victory speech early Wednesday morning.
But Clinton remained otherwise silent on election night. The former secretary of state is expected to give her concession speech later Wednesday morning.
President Barack Obama called Clinton after it became clear she had lost the race, the White House saying Obama “expressed admiration for the strong campaign she waged throughout the country.”
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The results were startling to Clinton and her aides, who had ended their campaign with a whirlwind tour of battleground states and had projected optimism that she would maintain the diverse coalition assembled by President Barack Obama in the past two elections.
The night quickly turned sour for supporters who had gathered under the glass ceiling of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City to celebrate what many expected to be a historic win for Clinton – many breaking down in tears as the results came in.
“My disappointment makes me not trust the rest of the world,” said Katie Fahey, who had flown to New York from Grand Rapids, Mich., wearing a red pantsuit in honour of Clinton.
“I don’t even want to go out. I want to wear sweatpants and curl myself up in a corner.”
Clinton’s campaign was rocked by several scandals during the election, most recently FBI director James Comey’s announcement that investigators had uncovered additional emails potentially relevant to the investigation of her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
Last Sunday, Comey told lawmakers that the bureau had found no evidence to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.
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But the announcement may have damaged Clinton while her campaign tried to generate support in early voting in battleground states like Florida and North Carolina. In the nine days between Comey’s initial statement and his “all clear” announcement, nearly 24 million people cast early ballots. That was about 18 per cent of the expected total votes for president.
But, for those who were looking to Clinton to break new boundaries for women in America, the outcome of the election is still too much to bear.
— With files from The Associated Press
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