“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.
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Donald Trump sensationally challenged Russian Federation on Wednesday to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails as a furious Democratic campaign accused the Republican nominee of inviting foreign spies to meddle in the United States presidential election. “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue”, said top Clinton advisor Jake Sullivan.
A spokesman for Trump, Jason Miller, tried to tamp down the storm of protest, saying Trump did not urge Russian Federation to hack Clinton’s emails.
The former official, and a source familiar with the Democratic Party investigations, said that they also were unaware of any US intelligence clearly demonstrating that WikiLeaks had received the hacked materials directly from Russians or that WikiLeaks’ release of the materials was in any way directed by Russians. All signs are that WikiLeaks has information that could embarrass Hillary Clinton as this race grinds on.
They came as the Democrats met on the third day of their national convention in Philadelphia, where Clinton will accept the presidential nomination Thursday night to face Republican Trump in November.
“If it is Russian Federation, which it probably isn’t, but if it is Russian Federation, it’s bad for a different reason, it shows how little respect they have for our country”, said Trump in reference to the Democratic National Committee email hack.
Those emails leaked by WikiLeaks showed the extent to which party leaders sought to undermine Clinton’s rival Bernie Sanders, even questioning his religious faith, and forced the Democratic National Committee chairwoman to resign.
“It is the nature of democracy that until those votes are cast and the American people have their say, we don’t know”, Obama explained in an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie. Trump said at a campaign rally in December.
“Donald Trump today once again took Russia’s side”.
The Clinton camp responded immediately and furiously.
On Twitter, Trump issued a similar appeal, saying if anyone had Clinton’s emails, “perhaps they should share them with the Federal Bureau of Investigation!” He said last week that more leaks are in the works to damage Clinton.
When challenged by the press to condemn foreign powers that may be trying to intervene in the U.S. election, Trump replied: “No, it gives me no pause”.
“I have nothing to do with Russian Federation”, he said. (One thing Putin didn’t call Trump is “a genius”, as Trump has repeatedly claimed.) Trump called Putin “a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond”. He called upon Russian hackers to try and find the 30 thousand missing emails from Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, saying he “hopes” Russia can find them.
This was despite saying at the same news conference that he didn’t know who was behind the hacks. “Who knows who it is.But you have 33,000 emails deleted and the real problem is what was said on those emails from the Democratic National Committee”, Trump remarked.
Shortly before she was sworn in as secretary of state in 2009, Hillary Clinton set up an email server at her home in Chappaqua, New York.
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Asked if he would recognise Crimea as Russian territory, Trump said he would be “looking into that”.
