Hillary Clinton walked on to the stage at the New Yorker Hotel with a smile on her face, but her words had a different message.
“I’m sorry we didn’t win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for this country,” Clinton said.
Clinton addressed staff members and supporters in her official concession speech this morning. Clinton spoke to Donald Trump in a private phone call early Wednesday morning but did not make an official concession speech until late Wednesday morning.
Trump won the presidency with 276 electoral votes, and Clinton obtained 228. However, with 98 percent of precincts reporting in, Clinton won the popular vote with about 59.4 million votes compared to Trump’s 59.2 million votes.
“However, Donald Trump is going to our president,” Clinton said. “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”
The country is more divided than the people thought, Clinton said.
The country had made it “uniquely difficult for a woman to be elected to federal office,” Sen. Tim Kaine said in his introduction speech for Clinton’s concession.
Nevertheless, Clinton’s dreams of empowering women and children remain, he said.
The Clinton campaign planned to ring in election night Tuesday night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the west side of Manhattan. The building, described by the New York Times as an “unglamorous glass fortress,” symbolized the glass ceiling Clinton would break if she were to be elected president.
But the glass ceiling remains intact. Donald Trump is now president-elect.
Nothing has made Clinton more proud than to be a champion for all women, she said. She told all little girls never to doubt their value, power and they deserve every chance in the world to achieve their dreams.
“Being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Clinton said.
