New York (CNN) Hillary Clinton blamed Vladimir Putin for the hacking of Democratic organizations during the 2016 election , telling donors that the Russian President's involvement stemmed from a "personal beef against me." 
 
 During a short speech pegged as a "thank you party" at the The Plaza Hotel, Clinton said the 2016 election hacking was enough to tip the balance in Donald Trump's favor. The comments were her first since the news of Putin's involvement. 
 
 Clinton, based on audio obtained by the New York Times and sources in the room, did not mention President-elect Donald Trump in regards to the hacking, but her comments reacting to news that the United States intelligence assessment of the 2016 hacking suggests Putin was involved was seen in the room as an implicit knock against the President-elect. 
 
 "Vladimir Putin himself directed the covert cyber attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against," she said. 
 
 One of the sources said Clinton reacted to recent news by saying that she was proud as secretary of state to have defended democracy when confronted by the Russian president. 
 
 She also said Putin held a grudge against her stemming from Clinton's comments about Russia's 2011 parliamentary elections. Clinton issued a sharp critique of Russia's elections as secretary of state, suggesting that the vote was not free and fair. Putin then blamed Clinton for protests that broke out afterward. 
 
 "Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring our outrage for his own people. And that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election," Clinton said. "I want you to know this because he is determined not only to score a point against me, which he did, but also to undermine our democracy." 
 
 Meanwhile, her campaign chairman, John Podesta, issued a scathing rebuke of the FBI, writing in a Washington Post op-ed that "something is deeply broken" at the bureau. 
 
 Hacked material from both the Democratic National Committee and Podesta found itself at the center of the 2016 campaign, used extensively by Trump against Clinton. WikiLeaks, the organization that published much of the material, released groups of Podesta's emails for weeks before the November election. 
 
 A US official familiar with the election-related hacking told CNN Thursday that the operation was carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, suggesting that Putin was involved. The source said while Putin's "fingerprints" were not on the hacking, "the nature of the operation was such that this had to be approved by top levels of the Russian government." 
 
 Clinton's speech, the donors said, was not deeply reflective and instead urged them to stay engaged with the Democratic Party. Clinton specifically told her supporters not to lose heart and implored them to stand up for democracy both here and abroad, one source added. 
 
 Clinton said Russia's hacking was "part of a long term strategy to cause us to doubt ourselves and to create the circumstances in which Americans either wittingly or unwittingly will begin to cede their freedoms to a much more powerful state." 
 
 While Clinton has maintained a low profile since losing a month ago, she has stayed engaged in the news, especially when it pertains to reasons she could have lost to Trump. Her comments and Thursday's event -- as well as comments she has made at other private functions since the elections -- indicate that Clinton is still mulling why she lost. 
 
 The event was a star studded affair, and likely the final event Clinton will have as a 2016 candidate with her top donors. Event attendees included Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, movie producer Harvey Weinstein and designed Vera Wang. The bulk of attendees were longtime Democratic donors such as Alan Patricof, Robert Zimmerman and Steve Elmendorf. 
 
 Tim Kaine, Clinton's vice presidential candidate, also spoke at the event, but declined beforehand to comment on the fight over the chairmanship at the DNC. 
 
 Podesta shreds FBI 
 
 Around the time Clinton was speaking, The Washington post published an op-ed by Podesta in which he suggested there was a double standard regarding the FBI's urgency in investigating emails related to Clinton's private server and Russian hacking. 
 
 "Comparing the FBI's massive response to the overblown email scandal with the seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election shows that something is deeply broken at the FBI," Podesta wrote. 
 
 He called on Congress to appoint a bipartisan panel in the mold of the 9/11 Commission to probe Russian interference in the election, adding that Congress should "more vigorously exercise its oversight to determine why the FBI responded overzealously in the Clinton case and insufficiently in the Russian case." 
 
 Podesta concluded, "What's broken in the FBI must be fixed and quickly." ||||| Hillary Clinton has an explanation for Vladimir Putin's alleged involvement in the hacking of Democratic organizations during the 2016 presidential election: The Russian leader has a longtime grudge against her, dating back to 2011 when she was secretary of state and made comments that were critical of Russia's parliamentary elections. 
 
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 Two Clinton donors tell ABC News that Clinton made the claim Thursday night at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel during an event dubbed a "thank you" party, at which she expressed her gratitude to donors. Her former running mate Tim Kaine was in attendance, as was New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 
 
 In an audio recording from the event obtained by The New York Times, Clinton can be heard saying that the hacking attacks were ordered by Putin "because he has a personal beef against me.” 
 
 “Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” Clinton said, The New York Times reported. 
 
 The donors who spoke to ABC News also say there is growing anger in the Clinton camp toward the FBI, saying they played a monumental role in allegedly handing the election to Donald Trump, in regards to FBI Director James Comey's handling of Clinton's email scandal. 
 
 Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post Thursday with the headline "Something is deeply broken at the FBI," calling the department out for what he said was a "lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election." 
 
 At Thursday's event, some attendees were spotted crying while Clinton spoke. Looking upbeat and greeting guests, she encouraged attendees to help elect Democrats to office and stay involved in the party's future. 
 
 The Basis Behind the Alleged Grudge 
 
 There is a widespread perception among followers of U.S.-Russia relations that Putin holds a grudge against Clinton over what he sees as her efforts to have him pushed out when she was secretary of state. 
 
 In 2011, massive street demonstrations broke out in Moscow protesting the blatant rigging of Russia’s parliamentary elections in favor of Putin’s party. 
 
 The demonstrations, which saw as many as 100,000 people march, morphed into a larger protest against Putin and became the most serious popular threat to his presidency he has ever faced. The spontaneous protests were a genuine outcry by Russia’s liberal middle class against the corruption among Putin’s elite and his control of a political system that has smothered most opposition to him. 
 
 Putin blamed Clinton for the protests, accusing her of inciting them and saying she immediately tried to egg them on. 
 
 "I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. partners," Putin said at the time. "The first thing that the secretary of state did was say that they [the elections] were not honest and not fair, but she had not even yet received the material from the observers. 
 
 "She set the tone for some actors in our country and gave them a signal," Putin continued. "They heard the signal and with the support of the U.S. State Department began active work." 
 
 Political Implications 
 
 The Kremlin believes that the U.S. has seized on demonstrations in former Soviet countries and elsewhere to try to effect regime change in the name of Western democratic values, followers of U.S.-Russia relations say. 
 
 The 2011 protests against Putin arose without any involvement from the U.S., but is widely believed that Putin thinks Clinton and her State Department were out to get him. Putin does have some basis for this: In 2008, he stepped down as president for a term as a means of dodging a constitutional limit on consecutive terms, placing his longtime collaborator Dmitry Medvedev in the presidency while he kept much of the real power as prime minister. 
 
 Nonetheless, the U.S. hoped it might be an opportunity to keep the more liberal Medvedev, whom they considered more Western in his values, in power and have Putin relinquish the presidency for good. The U.S. appeared to make efforts to persuade Medvedev to stay on and called on Putin to let him stay in power. Vice President Joe Biden among others made this suggestion while on a trip to Moscow in 2011. 
 
 When Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, many observers believe he still felt Clinton's State Department had tried to meddle in Russian politics and specifically to threaten his presidency. From this perspective, allegedly interfering in Clinton’s own presidential race was a taste of her own medicine for Putin. 
 
 Of course, it is not publicly known how much of this speculation over bruised relations is really personal for Putin. More certain is there were reasons Putin might have wanted to delegitimize Clinton if she won or prevent her from winning if he could: As a candidate, Clinton had made it clear that she would take a hard line with Russia on sanctions over Ukraine and Syria and would continue to criticize Putin’s rule as illegitimate and authoritarian 
 
 Of course, publicly it’s not known how much of this speculation over bruised relations is really personal for Putin. But what is known is that Putin had every reason to want to delegitimize Clinton if she won or prevent her from winning if he could: She had made it very clear that she would take a hard line with Russia on sanctions and would continue to attack Putin’s presidency as illegitimate and authoritarian.
– Hillary Clinton spoke at a "thank you" party for donors Thursday night in New York—complete with attendees who cried as she spoke, per ABC News—and she says two "unprecedented" events led to her stunning defeat in the election, the New York Times reports. Clinton first addressed the 11th-hour letter released by FBI Director James Comey before the election that dredged up her email scandal. "Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the FBI letter from Director Comey," she told the crowd. Clinton also blamed the hacking of Democratic emails on Vladimir Putin because of a "personal beef" between the two, stemming from her claims that Russia's parliamentary elections in 2011 were fixed. "Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election," she said. (CNN notes Putin pointed the finger at then-Secretary of State Clinton for protests that broke out after his country's 2011 election.) "This is an attack against our country," she said. "We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation." Clinton also told the supporters in the room—Vogue editor Anna Wintour and film producer Harvey Weinstein among them—to stay involved in the Democratic Party and not give up hope. (John Podesta's latest take on the FBI.)