Without Comey letter ‘I would have won’

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Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks on during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri.

Hillary Clinton opened up on Wednesday about President Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey, saying she would have won the election had it not been for the former FBI director’s letter about his investigation of her private email account.

“Absent that, I believe the evidence shows I would have won,” Clinton told NBC’s “TODAY” in her first live television interview since losing the 2016 presidential election.

Trump fired Comey after receiving a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that blamed the FBI director for mishandling the investigation of Clinton’s email.

Comey’s firing came as he was investigating Trump’s possible role in suspected Russian tampering with the election.

“He was fired for the wrong reason,” Clinton said, while talking about her most recent book, which she calls a “behind-the-scenes look” at running for president.

She added it “made her sick” to hear Comey telling Congress he became “mildly nauseous” to know his Oct. 28 letter could have made a material impact on the Nov. 8 election.

“He should have been disciplined for the way he behaved on the e-mail investigation,” Clinton said, adding it was “not for me to say” whether Comey should have been fired.

“The deputy attorney general, backed by the attorney general of this administration, laid out in excruciating detail all of the protocols and rules that [Comey] broke,” Clinton said.

Clinton said the timing of the letter meant that there was no room to recover ahead of the election. Comey issued a statement two days before the election reaffirming his decision announced in July that there was no reason to recommend charges against her.

In her new book, “What Happened,” she also claims harm was done by the press, saying the media made “an absurd circus out of the campaign.”

“Our press … has to take some hard look at how it covered what was the first reality TV candidate,” Clinton said.