“You’re supposed to have them in a presidential campaign”.
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The New York businessman on Wednesday invited Russian Federation to dig up tens of thousands of “missing” emails from Clinton’s time at the US State Department, prompting Democrats to accuse him of urging foreigners to spy on Americans. In other words, the GOP candidate sanctioned cyber-spying by a foreign nation in order to influence an election in his favor. But private security experts – although not yet any USA government agencies – say they found persuasive clues that point to hacking groups whose previous targets track closely with the strategic interests of Russia’s government, especially its civilian and military intelligence and security agencies.
“What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can’t say directly”, Obama said. “So I think he looks at problems through this Cold War lens, and, as a outcome, I think he’s missed some opportunities for Russian Federation to diversify its economy, to strengthen its relationship with its neighbors, to represent something different than the old Soviet-style aggression”.
Indeed, the DNC and Clinton campaign are spending much valuable time spinning a narrative that the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming rather than focusing on the upcoming race against Donald Trump which promises to be a very tight election. And there’s no concrete evidence yet that Russian Federation handed off the emails to those who leaked them.
“Putin and Hillary Clinton don’t have a very good history in their personal relations”, he says.
And of course, Trump said Putin would respect him more than Clinton, his Democratic rival who has been fiercely critical of Putin.
According to Roberts, he was aware of efforts being made to connect Trump and Putin while the billionaire was in Moscow. He was overthrown by popular revolt in 2014, after which Putin seized Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine.
In the pundit’s eyes, Democrats are stuck between a rock and a hard place in their criticisms of the Donald Trump Russia remarks. But fast-forward to the past couple of weeks and you get a few clues.
While former U.S. secretary of State Madeline Albright, a Clinton supporter who has, in the past, exhibited a disoriented sense of proportion when she told Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes that “the price was worth it” regarding the deaths of half a million Iraqi children due to USA sanctions and more recently suggested that women who do not support Mrs. Clinton would “find a place in hell” suggested on Tuesday “the truth is that a Trump victory in November would be a gift to Vladimir Putin”. If there is no outcry about Trump’s behavior from responsible Republicans, the party will be setting a risky precedent that its members, not to mention the country, will come to regret.
At the Democratic convention, I spoke with Hanna Hopko, a heroine of Ukraine’s democracy struggle and now chairwoman of the foreign relations committee in the Ukrainian parliament.
Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, said if Russian Federation were “interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences”. “He’s been very nice to me”, Trump said.
Slovenia, a small Alpine nation where U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s wife Melania was born and grew up, has kept friendly relations with Russian Federation even as it joined European Union sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine. He needs the West to lift the sanctions it imposed on Russian Federation over its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which have cut off access to Western credit markets and technology imports.
In his speech in front of the chapel, Putin said Russian Federation was ready to help strengthen security in Europe and the world.
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With the (justified) flap over Donald Trump’s invitation to Vladimir Putin to intervene in US politics, and with his continued stonewalling on tax returns, another aspect of Trump’s performance at the press conference just now has been under-appreciated. Admiration for a strongman who would run rings around Trump should he be elected. Secretary of State John Kerry raised the issue earlier this week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov but stopped short of making any allegation about who might be responsible.
