Posted on 07/27/2016 12:37:12 PM PDT by Drango
Trump urged Russian agents to "find" his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's emails and release them, an unprecedented move by a candidate for president encouraging such a foreign breach.
"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," the GOP presidential nominee said at a news conference in Miami on Wednesday. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
Trump was referring to the ongoing controversy surrounding the private server Clinton used while secretary of state.
Separately, the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this week was upended by a release of hacked emails from the party committee believed to have been orchestrated by Russia. While the motive for intrusion and release of emails isn't known, many Democrats have speculated that it's a possible attempt to influence the outcome of this year's presidential election.
Pressed by NBC's Katy Tur as to whether he had any "pause about asking a foreign government ... to interfere, to hack into the system of anybody's in this country," Trump dismissed that idea and told Tur to "be quiet."
Clinton's campaign responded in disbelief and outrage to Trump's comments.
"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. That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts," Clinton senior policy adviser Jake 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."
The Trump campaign appeared to try to clean up Trump's comments with a statement from his running mate, Mike Pence.
"The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking" of the DNC emails, said Pence. If it was Russia, "I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences."
The Indiana governor called it "outrageous" that Democrats were "singularly focusing on who might be behind" the breach and not the fallout from the leaked emails, which resulted in the ouster of Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after some revealed the DNC was rooting for Clinton as their nominee and worked to handicap Bernie Sanders.
But then Trump, taking to his usual medium of Twitter, doubled down on his comments earlier just minutes later.
Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI! 10:16 AM - 27 Jul 2016 13,087 13,087 Retweets 31,783 31,783 likes Later Wednesday, Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller maintained that the presidential candidate was simply saying anyone with Clinton's emails should turn them over to federal authorities.
Follow Jason Miller @JasonMillerinDC 3/7 To be clear, Mr. Trump did not call on, or invite, Russia or anyone else to hack Hillary Clinton’s e-mails today. 12:13 PM - 27 Jul 2016 238 238 Retweets 303 303 likes Follow Jason Miller @JasonMillerinDC 4/7 Trump was clearly saying that if Russia or others have Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted emails, they should share them w/ FBI immed. 12:15 PM - 27 Jul 2016 234 234 Retweets 266 266 likes Throughout the campaign, Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose rule has become increasingly authoritarian. In the press conference at his own golf course, the GOP presidential nominee again said he hoped he could work with Putin and threw cold water on the idea that the Russians were behind the DNC hack.
"I'm not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?" Trump retorted. "He already did something today where he said don't blame them, essentially, for your incompetence."
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta called Trump's comments "totally outrageous" and questioned his loyalty to the United States.
"You've got now a presidential candidate who is in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
"I just think that that's beyond the pale," Panetta, who is backing Clinton, said. "I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States."
Good point. The FBI obviously runs interference for Hillary. Hillary must not have any FBI files on Putin. And if she does, Putin doesn’t give a sh!t.
But since the emails were exchanged on a communications system not the property of the United States government, nor was the system authorized by the United States government, they are not entitled to any legal protection by the United States government. So hacking into the server was not technically "espionage." That's just part of why this was a huge national security breach. And I guarantee the Russian Foreign Ministry will take that line if they release their copies of the emails, which we all know they have.
I'd really like point that out to NPR.
Liars. Should be sued.
Trump is a master showman......and Hillary thought they would forget the emails by now, especially since she is crowned with the Dem nomination this week. Too funny that now we are talking about her emails again.
There is no explanation or defense for what Clinton did with classified e-mails and servers and the rest. The FBI would have done us all a favor to recommend indictment. But let her suffer a slow death every day as e-mails are released. No media spin or talking head can deny that she exposed secret information to be snatched up by the world and Trump is right to stoke the flames.
Trump will form his own weapons against himself.
I appreciate your graphic, LOL.
More diversion by the left.
Blow something Trump says out of proportion, while ignoring the actual crimes exposed in the emails themselves.
Akin to persecuting a home owner for being sloppy because a burglar tripped on a roller skate while robbing his home.
LOL !!
From the NPR Code of Ethics (so called). He never said HACK.
Interesting, hadn’t considered that.
Trump changed the national subject with one presser.....what he said was a joke and pretty funny. Too bad NPR and the liberal media can’t take a joke involving truth about Hillary. Trump is a masterful showman. Love it.
NPR needs to answer what are these 30,000 missing emails to which Trump is referring?
Since when does lib media report the truth? Even if they issue a retraction, the leftist morons have already been served.
If Hill has nothing to hide and these emails are as she said, what’s the big deal? Oh, that’s right. She’s a Clinton. Never mind.
What’s great about this is now everyone is focusing on the emails. Funny thing about this is it was the Clinton campaign which blamed Russia for hacking her server. If anything they should thank Trump for following up with the Russians.
That’s what I want. A President who takes action and doesn’t accuse people without any fact.
GO TRUMP!
So, now the DNC and Clinton think that Russia WAS more than capable of hacking Hillary’s illegal server and stealing top secret, special access information.
Have they told this to FBI Director Comey?
Here’s what the media is conveniently overlooking, and what the Low Information Voters are missing: If Russia does release any of those 33,000 emails, it won’t be because they decided to hack Hillary’s server TODAY and got them. It’s too late for that. It will mean the Russians already have those emails from Hillary’s private, non-secure server, and have had them for quite some time. It will also mean they have in their possession the classified information that F.B.I. Director James Comey has already confirmed was on the server. The Democrats have maintained all along that the Russians never hacked Hillary’s server. Now they’re going crazy because Donald Trump has challenged the Russians to release emails the Democrats claim the Russians never had.
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