“I’d love to see them”.
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U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he was being “sarcastic” when he encouraged Russian Federation to hack into the email server of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, to find deleted emails from her years as secretary of state.
NBC reported that a source connected to the Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov said Mr Putin asked his Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, to call Trump before the Miss Universe show in the Russian capital to set up a meeting between the two men.
As for Trump’s suggestion that Russian Federation should release the 30,000 emails deleted from Hillary’s server, a statement which prompted a firestorm of angry replies from the media, Trump told Fox News the following: “Of course I’m being sarcastic”.
“He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, you know, unlike what we have in this country”, he said, adding, “Well I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe”.
You read that right. Clinton’s senior policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, responded by saying, “This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent”.
The Democratic nomination now officially hers, Clinton has just over three months to persuade Americans that Trump is unfit for the Oval Office and overcome the visceral connection he has with some voters in a way the Democratic nominee does not. One previously infiltrated unclassified networks at the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook said the hack was in Donald Trump’s interest.
Donald Trump spent Thursday doing damage control for urging Russian government hackers to meddle in the US presidential election. And the FBI is investigating who is behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee and the leak of its emails to WikiLeaks – a disclosure that disrupted the first day of the Democrats’ convention and prompted the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
What’s the deal with Trump and the Russkies?
But Trump refused to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay out of the American politics and instead reasserted his desire to draw Russia and the US closer together as president – building on a long-established track record of Trump’s fondness for the autocratic Russian leader. Russian hackers have been blamed for the leak, which the country has denied saying that it doesn’t involve itself in the internal politics of another country.
But it turned out that Trump and Putin were interviewed in separate locations.
That’s the second outrage.
(George W. Bush released only his Form 1040.) Trump claims he can not release his because he is being audited. That’s ridiculous – there is no such prohibition – and the real reason must be that he has something to hide. The most powerful validation came Wednesday night from President Barack Obama, her victorious primary rival in 2008. “I just don’t want you to be shot by someone who shouldn’t have a gun in the first place”.
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Name-calling by Trump is not exactly news. They’re even discussing a military alliance against the Islamic State group. He said there were no American flags on the convention dais; there are. “When people call you brilliant, it’s always good, especially when the person heads up Russia”, Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”. He claimed he had inspired North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to begin focusing on terrorism; the alliance was heading in that direction long before Trump opened his mouth. “Now go out and make me do it”.
