Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the scandal surrounding her private email server was the "biggest nothingburger ever," and blamed the New York Times and other reporters for covering it "like it was Pearl Harbor."

Hillary Clinton says email scandal was covered "like it was Pearl Harbor" pic.twitter.com/wJR6AM1EYu— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 31, 2017



"The overriding issue that affected the election that I had any control over... was the way that the use of my email account was turned into the biggest scandal since lord knows when," Clinton told Recode's Code Conference on Wednesday afternoon.

"It was interesting — I know you had Dean Baquet from The New York Times yesterday, and they covered it like it was Pearl Harbor," Clinton said, adding that The Times downplayed the email situation in their endorsement of her.

Clinton noted that the book she's writing will quote people who have told her that her emails were a non-event that was blown out of proportion.

"In the book, I'm just using everything that anybody else said about it, besides me, who basically said this is the biggest nothingburger ever," Clinton said. "It was a mistake. I've said it was a mistake. Obviously, if I can turn the clock back, I wouldn't have done it in the first place, but the way it was used was very damaging."

"It was maddening," Clinton said. "It became the major reason toward the end based on the best analysis I can find that I lost ground and ended up losing."

Clinton also said that the paid speeches she gave to banks on Wall Street were "unfairly" used against her during the campaign by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the runner-up for the Democratic nomination.

When asked why she took money from Goldman Sachs, Clinton asked why Goldman Sachs was at the conference they were all speaking at.

"They pay us," the host said.

"They paid me," Clinton replied.