Trump urges Russia to hack Clinton’s emails
Candidate says they likely have missing messages
PHILADELPHIA — Republican nominee Donald Trump pleaded directly Wednesday with the Russian government to meddle in the U.S. presidential election by finding and releasing tens of thousands of private emails from his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton — an extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented maneuver in American politics.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said during a news conference at one of his South Florida resorts. He added later, “They probably have them. I’d like to have them released.”
Asked whether Russian espionage into the former secretary of state’s correspondence would concern him, Trump said, “No, it gives me no pause. If they have them, they have them.”
The emails cited by Trump are from Clinton’s time at the State Department, where her use of a private server prompted a federal investigation. The FBI concluded that no prosecution was necessary.
Those are different than emails from the Democratic National Committee that were leaked ahead of the
party convention here, possibly with the involvement of Russia. The FBI is investigating whether Russian state actors were responsible for leaking the politically damaging messages last Friday in an episode that forced the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
President Barack Obama, who plans to address the convention on Wednesday night, told NBC News in a Tuesday interview that Russia could be working to influence the election.
“What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems,” Obama said. “What the motives were in terms of the leaks, all that — I can’t say directly. What I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.”
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook responded to Trump’s Wednesday comments with a tone of disbelief, telling reporters the apparent hacking was “a national security issue.”
“It appears the Russians did steal these emails from the DNC,” Mook said at a lunch sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. “It appears as if they were active in releasing them for the purpose of hurting the campaign.”
Democrats have labored all week to put Trump on the defensive over his business and personal ties to Russia, as well as his professed admiration for President Putin as a model leader. Some have portrayed him as Putin’s Manchurian candidate.
The candidate and several of his top advisers have business connections to Russia. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort has made millions of dollars in business deals with pro-Russia oligarchs as well as advised the Putin-aligned president of Ukraine whose 2014 ouster triggered Russia’s intervention there.
Trump seemingly played into Democratic hands on Wednesday by praising Putin’s leadership qualities and vowing that U.S. relations with Russia would improve if he is elected in November.
“I don’t think Putin has any respect whatsoever for Clinton,” Trump said. He added, “He has a total lack of respect for President Obama. Number one, he doesn’t like him. And number two, he doesn’t respect him. I think he’s going to respect your president if I’m elected. And I hope he likes me.”
In a series of afternoon tweets, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the candidate was merely encouraging other countries to turn over any information relating to Clinton’s emails to U.S. authorities.
“To be clear, Mr. Trump did not call on, or invite, Russia or anyone else to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails today,” Miller wrote.
Still, Trump’s provocation alarmed many Republican leaders and foreign policy experts — not only for his disjointed discussion of Russia, but also for the signal it sent about their standard-bearer’s world view. Many were also alarmed by Trump’s remark that he would be “looking at” whether Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, should be recognized as Russian territory.
Rather than approaching Russia with trepidation, Trump embraced Putin as a future ally and said he hoped to develop a chummy and mutually beneficial rapport with one of the globe’s notorious strongmen. In doing so, Trump broke with decades of Republican instincts that were honed during Ronald Reagan’s presidency at the end of the Cold War.