Donald Trump encouraged Russian Federation on Wednesday to find and make public missing emails deleted by his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, setting off an instant debate over hacking and his urging of a foreign government to meddle in American politics.
Advertisement
“I’m being sarcastic”, Trump said in an interview to Fox News.
“But you have 33,000 (Clinton) emails deleted, and the real problem is what was said on those emails from the Democratic National Committee”, he said, referring to hacked emails released last weekend by WikiLeaks.
The brief statement from Brendan Buck comes as Democrats insinuated that Russian Federation hacked DNC emails, and Republican Donald Trump’s call for Russian Federation to infiltrate Hillary Clinton’s email an unprecedented suggestion to a foreign power to conduct cyberspying on a presidential candidate.
At a wide-ranging news conference, the NY billionaire tried to undermine his White House rival, implied that Vladimir Putin used a racial slur against President Barack Obama and promised a heyday of US-Russian relations under a Trump presidency.
The Clinton campaign pointed out this was the first time a presidential candidate encouraged espionage. “That’s not hyperbole, those are just the facts”.
The bold request, condemned as “a national security issue” by Clinton’s campaign, angered Democratic delegates and prompted President Obama to also modify his speech.
He also argued that it was Clinton who was endangering national security with her policies in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth, ‘ ” Trump wrote.
After ripping on the reactions Trump’s remarks got from various figures on cable news, Limbaugh seemed to join the chorus of defenders saying Trump was definitely not being serious with his remarks.
A USA intelligence official familiar with the matter told VOA that Trump’s comments would have no bearing on upcoming intelligence briefings both Trump and Clinton will receive as presidential candidates. “Richard Burr, as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, should say whether or not he agrees with Trump”.
As for the Democratic convention, the Republican nominee protested a lack of mentions about Islamic State terrorists, little talk about police officers getting killed, and a paucity of American flags at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia; he criticized Clinton for a “lack of loyalty” to ousted party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and claimed the Democrats offered no new ideas to lead the country.
Trump also denied mocking New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski’s muscular disability condition, an incident that has come up again though advertising for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“We have nothing to do with hacking”, Peskov said commenting on these accusations. “What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin”.
“Russia has no respect for our country, if it is Russia”, Trump said.
Mrs Clinton did not hand over 30,000 emails as part of an investigation into her private email server as they contained private details.
Trump continued, “He said one nice thing about me”.
Soon after Panetta spoke Wednesday night, the Trump campaign released a statement criticizing the former defense secretary’s stance and saying it was Clinton who had breached national security.
Advertisement
More from Today: Confessions of a food addict: I ate 10,000 calories a day MTV Video Music Awards: See who made the list!
