Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The New York Times reports:
Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power’s cyberspying on a secretary of state’s correspondence.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said, staring directly into the cameras. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Mr. Trump’s call was an extraordinary moment at a time when Russia is being accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential election. His comments came amid questions about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer servers, which researchers have concluded was likely the work of two Russian intelligence agencies.
Later in the news conference, when asked if he was really urging a foreign nation to hack into the private email server of Mrs. Clinton, or at least meddle in the nation’s elections, he dismissed the question. “That’s up to the president,” Mr. Trump said, before finally saying “be quiet” to the female questioner. “Let the president talk to them.”
The Washington Post reports:
“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,” Clinton’s senior policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement.
He added later: “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.”
Trump’s comments earned another rebuke from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). His spokesman, Brendan Buck, said in a statement that “Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin should stay out of this election.”
CNN reports:
Trump’s comments represented a stunning twist in a controversy about Russia’s alleged intervention in the presidential election after the release of Democratic Party emails, which appeared to show that party leaders were tilting the playing field against Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent Bernie Sanders.
US officials have said the emails were hacked from DNC servers in an operation originating in Russia that appeared to be linked to Moscow’s intelligence agency.
Trump also suggested during his news conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of respect for the US prompted him to once call President Barack Obama “the N word.” There are no published reports to back up Trump’s claim about Putin’s use of the racially derogatory term.
#TrumpTreason is trending on Twitter.