The Kremlin has denied that it is behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails as Donald Trump sparked outcry by urging Russian Federation to break into Hillary Clinton’s server and search for 30,000 “missing” documents.
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Umm… did he genuinely forget he’s running for president?
Trump, who later said his comments were intended sarcastically, spoke out after U.S. President Barack Obama said it was possible Russia would try to influence the U.S. presidential election after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that experts have blamed on Russian hackers. And both Democrats and Republicans have voiced concern over what appears to be a candidate for president encouraging Russian Federation to meddle in the political campaign for the highest office in the country. “This has gone from being a curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security”, [sic] the campaign said in an official statement.
No doubt, Trump will look mighty hypocritical saying Clinton is risking national security after his most recent unfiltered verbal diarrhea. “Because I think they will respect me”.
Trump blamed Obama for tensions with Russia, pointing out Russian aircraft flying by US military ships.
Democrats and some Republicans quickly condemned Trump’s remarks.
Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Thursday (Friday NZT).
Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said, “The United States should not tolerate Russian meddling in November’s election”.
“That a person in our government, Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails”.
After telling the news conference that Russia – or somebody – probably already has Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails, a reporter later returned to the subject, asking Trump why he doesn’t tell Russian President Vladimir Puting to stop interfering with the USA presidential campaign. “They’re just trying to deflect from that”. While an investigation into the matter concluded she should not face charges, the director of the agency said Clinton had been “extremely careless” in the way she handled the emails.
Many on social media accused Trump of treason, while CNN political analyst Christine Quinn said: “It’s honestly nearly treasonous”. In response to Trump’s remarks on Crimea, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko said on Thursday: “Mr. Trump is not the president of the United States, at least not yet”. If you want to be Commander in Chief, you don’t go around inviting foreign spies to hack or attack our government.
When a reporter asked Trump if he had “any qualms about asking a foreign government, Russia, China, anybody, to interfere, to hack into a system of anybody in this country” or if it gave him “pause”, he responded, “No, it gives me no pause”.
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“What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that, I can’t say directly”, Obama said. Trump apparently wants it to happen now and Vladimir Putin could take up the challenge.
