Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump encouraged Russian Federation to meddle in American politics Wednesday, with a stunning recommendation to uncover and make public hacked emails that might damage his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
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Clinton has handed over about 30,000 work-related emails to the State Department, but she deleted about half of her emails that were “personal” in nature. While the motive for intrusion and release of emails isn’t known, many Democrats have speculated that it’s a possible attempt to influence the outcome of this year’s presidential election.
“(Pence) is basically saying if there is a foreign power behind the DNC hack, that’s serious and somebody needs to check this out, which is the appropriate response”, said Helmke, a civics professor and former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne.
The Clinton campaign was not amused.
Trump made the remarks at a time when Clinton is to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Nearly before Trump left the building, his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, sought to clarify that the Republican ticket was not in cahoots with Moscow, and attempted to shift the focus back to attacking the Democrats.
According to The New York Times, Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s chief foreign policy adviser, condemned Donald Trump’s statement, saying that it had gone beyond a mere curiosity.
“If it is Russian Federation and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both [political] parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences”, the statement said. The outcry over the emails led to the resignation of Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The House intelligence committee’s senior Democrat, California Rep. Adam Schiff, charged that Trump’s comments showed “staggeringly poor judgment”.
“This seems to be a welcome gift for the Democratic Party, given the fact that they are trying to distance themselves from the content, which shows that they colluded in favour of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy” over Sanders, Halkett said. But he refused to tell Putin to stay out of the election.
“Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t know who Putin is”.
Trump’s loyalty to the United States in an interview CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
The unprecedented comments in a campaign that has pushed multiple boundaries came after days of increased interest in Trump’s relationship with Russia, his statements that he might renege on USA commitments to defend North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies against Russian aggression and his frequently espoused admiration for Putin.
“And I think that Trump’s gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russian Federation”. “I don’t think [Russian President Vladimir Putin] respects Clinton”.
Trump argued that if a foreign nation was behind the hacks, it simply proves how little respect the current administration commands globally. I hope they do. “I have nothing to do with Russian Federation, yes?”
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“We have people coming in this country with very evil intentions”, Trump said. At the news conference Wednesday, Trump said he would consider recognizing Crimea as Russian territory, which would be another major coup for Putin. “I was shocked to hear him mention the N word”, he said. He said one nice thing about me. He said, “Clinton is compromised, and it’d be nice if our geopolitical adversary helped me win”.
