Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that being a capitalist probably hurt her cause in 2016 because so many Democrats in the party today are socialists.
Her interviewer at the Shared Values Leadership Summit quipped Clinton might have been the first presidential candidate since World War II who had to stand up and announce she was a capitalist.
"Did it hurt you?" he asked.
"Probably," Clinton said. "It's hard to know, but if you're in the Iowa caucuses and 41 percent of Democrats are socialists, or self-described socialists, and I'm asked, 'Are you a capitalist?' And I say, 'Yes, but with appropriate regulation and appropriate accountability,' you know, that probably gets lost in the 'Oh my gosh, she's a capitalist.'"
Clinton fought off a surprisingly sturdy challenge from Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Sanders won primaries and caucuses in 22 states, and he came close to pulling off an upset in Iowa, losing by less than half a point to Clinton.
She has laid blame on numerous factors for her eventual general election defeat at the hands of President Donald Trump, Sanders and his diehard supporters among them. Sanders ripped Clinton as beholden to Wall Street interests during the primary, and she wrote his attacks did "lasting damage" to her.
Clinton also criticized Sanders as unrealistic in his policies and for essentially offering voters a bill of goods.