USA TODAY International Edition
Trump says he hopes Russia can find emails
SCRANTON, PA. Seeking to counter the impact of the Democratic convention Wednesday, Donald Trump all but invited Russia to hack Hillary Clinton and said he would “love to see” private emails from the former secretary of State, his election opponent.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a news conference near Miami. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Trump mocked the Democrats for claiming Russia hacked their party in an effort to aid his candidacy — and said he knows nothing about it. He assailed President Obama as “ignorant” and contended a Clinton administration would be worse.
Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said this is probably the first time a major presidential candidate has encouraged “a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent.”
“That’s not hyperbole, those are just the facts,” Sullivan said in a statement. “This has gone
from being a matter of curiosity and a matter of politics to being a national security issue.”
Donna Brazile, who is set to take over as interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after the party concludes its convention, blasted Trump’s comments as “so far over the line” and “outrageous.”
As for the Democratic gathering in Philadelphia, the Republican nominee protested a lack of mentions about Islamic State terrorists, little talk about police officers getting killed and a paucity of American flags. He criticized Clinton for a lack of loyalty to ousted party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and claimed the Democrats offered no new ideas to lead the country.
“There’s no change,” Trump said. “It’s going to be the same, it’s going to be an extension of Obama.”
Trump bashed Obama on the day he was set to address the Democratic convention as “the most ignorant president in our history,” and “I believe that Hillary Clinton will be even worse.”
The candidate making his first run for public office assailed Clinton running mate Tim Kaine, mistakenly ( and repeatedly) describing him as being from New Jersey. Kaine is a senator and former governor of Virginia. ( There is a former New Jersey governor named Tom Kean.)
Trump mocked Democratic claims that a hack of DNC emails — the incident that led to Wasserman Schultz’s removal — was somehow connected to the Republican campaign. “It’s just a total deflection, this whole thing with Russia,” Trump said.
He said whoever did the hack probably has emails that Clinton “lost” or deleted from the private account she maintained while at the State Department, the subject of a recent FBI investigation.
At his Florida news conference, Trump said he doesn’t do business with Russia or with leader Vladimir Putin, despite Putin’s praise for him. “I have nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said repeatedly.
Later in the day, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the Republican candidate was not inviting Russia or anybody else to do anything, only pointing out that Clinton’s private email system was vulnerable to hacking.