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."
Headline is clickbait. Trump did no such thing and NPR owes him an apology.
“Hope you can find,” that is, in what he assumes they already have. The context makes that abundantly clear. NPR lies.
Well, Trump finally has the Democrats and their media talking about the emails.
It’s wrong to turn them over to the FBI?
This is a totally negative spin on Trump’s press conference. Trump did great. Most people in the press are crooks like Hillary.
“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.
I thought that was Teddy Kennedy, oh right he was just
a Senator.
No weapon formed against Donald Trump will prosper!
Go Russia go!
“Hope you can find,” that is, in what he assumes they already have. The context makes that abundantly clear. NPR lies.
They are all lying in the media about this. They are prostitutes servicing the Democrat Party.
When I think of all the decades that liberals eagerly welcomed Soviet interference in our affairs, it’s hard to get too upset.
Solid statement by Trump regarding the Clinton emails and more importantly shows the American people that if we cannot get justice from our own Justice Department, we do have other options to shed light on the Democrat’s scandals.
Lost control of my bladder a bit there....
The left lies! People know the truth! NPR is not a Free Press. Should actually be unfunded by government since the leftist perspective in media is no longer a minority.
Democrat political elites/Clintons..... so richly deserve this smack down!
Should have had a Spanish translator for NPR to aide their comprehension.
If it is Russia, which it's probably not, nobody knows who it is, but if it is Russia, It's really bad for a different reason. Because it shows how little respect they have for our country when they would hack into a major party and get everything.
But it would be interesting to see, I will tell you this, Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens, that will be next.
A.) He didn't call on them to hack anyone. He was commenting from the perspective that they had already hacked Hillary Clinton's unsecured server and had in their possession the 33,000 emails that were so potentially damaging that Hillary Clinton would go so far as to commit a felony to remove them from the national debate.
B.) If Russia does have these emails, it would most definitely be in America's best interest to see them released before Hillary Clinton weasels her way into the White House where those emails will become leverage against her.
C.)If Russia has them, there's no way they will release them. They will wait to see if Hillary wins and use them against her. Hillary has been compromised and can be blackmailed. Guaranteed.
D.) It is also highly probable that whatever is in those emails implicates Barack Obama in impeachable offenses and would, therefore, also be useful leverage against him.
Only the paychecks come from the US taxpayers.
Meanwhile the clintons have bought and sold the cuountry fifty times over.
too much.
But it will be front page news for weeks.
Exactly. Context is everything.
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