Hillary Clinton says winning popular vote means people 'counted on us'

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election in a dramatic shift of events on Tuesday, says the fact that more people have voted for her than her opponent GOP nominee Donald Trump, means that the American people “counted” on her.

Addressing her supporters at New Yorker Hotel on Wednesday, the Democratic flag-bearer said she was not trying to “sugarcoat” her loss, urging Democrats to remain “focused on what each of us in our own ways can do to really keep standing up for those values, and doing all that we can do together to represent them.”

Clinton fell short of 47 electoral votes with 228, compared to Trump who got 279 to become the US president, however, more people narrowly voted for the Democrat to win the popular vote (48 percent to 47 percent).

Republican president-elect Donald Trump along with his wife Melania Trump (Center-R) greet people in the crowd after delivering his acceptance speech at the New York Hilton Midtown in the early morning hours of November 9, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by AFP)

“We won the popular vote. We have a lot of people, who really counted on us and believed in us, and worked so hard for us, because they shared our vision of the kind of America that we wanted not only to be part of but to help, create nurture and send into the future,” she told the tearful supporters. “I'm not going to sugar-coat it, it's really hard.”

Earlier, the former first lady and New York congresswoman took the stage in the hotel for her concession speech.

Apart from congratulating to the New York billionaire, Clinton spoke of the division in the United States and apologized to the nearly 60 million voters who backed her.