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Clinton Slams Biden in Memoir for 'Remarkable' Criticism About Campaign Failing to Address Middle Class

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a rally with Vice President Joe Biden on August 15, 2016 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
September 6, 2017

Hillary Clinton takes a shot at former Vice President Joe Biden in her new 2016 election memoir, tagging him for his "remarkable" criticism that her campaign failed to adequately address the middle class.

CNN obtained a copy of What Happened a week ahead of its Sept. 12 release and reported on some of its passages Wednesday, describing Clinton's tone as "raw and aggrieved."

In the book, Clinton lays into former FBI Director James Comey, as she has done so publicly, but she also rips former primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Biden for dragging her down. Biden said in March that his party did not talk about "how to maintain a burgeoning middle class" during the campaign.

"What happened was that this was the first campaign that I can recall where my party did not talk about what it always stood for—and that was how to maintain a burgeoning middle class," Biden said.

Clinton writes in the book that Biden's criticism was "fairly remarkable."

"Joe Biden said the Democratic Party in 2016 'did not talk about what it always stood for—and that was how to maintain a burgeoning middle class,'" Clinton writes. "I find this fairly remarkable, considering that Joe himself campaigned for me all over the Midwest and talked plenty about the middle class."

Biden, who mulled over running before announcing in 2015 he would not enter the race, has stated he feels he would have been a better candidate than Clinton.

"I never thought she was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate," Biden said in May.