'The Electoral College Is an Abomination': Hillary Clinton Delivers Scathing Critique of 2016 Election Loss in Explosive New Docuseries

Nearly a decade later, Hillary Clinton still hasn't made peace with how 2016 ended.

In Netflix's new docuseries The American Experiment — a five-part look at the nation's founding timed to the 250th anniversary of American independence — Clinton sits down for what producers call one of the most candid reflections she's given on that election night. And she does not hold back. "Well, I personally think the Electoral College is an abomination," she says, adding, "For obvious reasons."

It's a striking moment inside a documentary that's about Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and the messy birth of American democracy, not about one woman's electoral grievance. But that's exactly what makes it land.

Clinton won the popular vote by almost three million votes in 2016, only to lose the presidency after Donald Trump carried Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by a combined 80,000 votes, and apparently, the wound hasn't closed.

The docuseries, directed by Brian Knappenberger and executive-produced by Tom Hanks, premieres Wednesday, June 24, and traces America's history back to its founding years through interviews with dozens of politicians and historians, including Clinton, Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi.

Knappenberger told Variety, “I knew I would be asking former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton about one of the most painful moments of her life. She has rarely spoken candidly about that election night and we’re really happy she talked about it for the series. She has a unique perspective as one of only five people in American history to lose the presidency after winning the popular vote. The 2016 election also stands out because Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in the popular vote by such a significant margin.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California), featured in the docuseries, points out that even the nation's founders had reservations about the electoral college system. "The founders themselves were not in love with the Electoral College. It was defective from the beginning," she says, before adding: "We have a problem that a minority of the population, because of the structure of the Electoral College — in some cases, over the objections of the majority — is ruling the majority."

In a way, The American Experiment lands as an unintentional rebuttal to Trump's self-congratulatory Freedom 250 festivities, though Knappenberger insists that wasn't his goal. His real aim, he says, was to use the series as somewhat of a history lesson.

Knappenberger draws a direct line from the past to the present, noting how current some of Hamilton's warnings sound today.

"Some of Hamilton's writing feels remarkably prescient. In the series, we discuss his warning that a despot-like figure might one day arise in America who could 'throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind,'" he says. "The founders did not fully anticipate it, but by the time George Washington left office, he crafted his eloquent Farewell Address, warning that partisan divisions could tear the new nation apart. This was one of his greatest fears. Washington believed the strength of the United States came from union. Today, we find ourselves more divided than at any point in our history since the Civil War."