Trump Urges Russia To Cyber Attack United States, Tells Them They’ll Be Rewarded
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.”
Those were the words spoken by Republican presidential nominee and party standard-bearer Donald Trump during a Wednesday morning press conference. Dealing with questions regarding his financial and political ties to Russia amidst investigations pointing to the Russian government being responsible for hacking into the DNC’s emails, Trump gave perhaps the most dangerous and unhinged statements of his campaign. And, frankly, that is saying something.
Donald Trump calls on Russia to find missing emails https://t.co/pmKOWddaVe pic.twitter.com/9ubu8h77e3
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 27, 2016
The real estate mogul brushed off the notion that Putin and the Russians are behind these recent cyber attacks against the Democratic Party. Stating that he doesn’t think that Russia had anything to do with it, he pointed out that he has never met Russian leader Vladimir Putin not has anything to do with Russian. At the same time, he didn’t discourage Putin from involving himself in America’s election.
“I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?”
Earlier in the day during an interview with CBS, campaign manager Paul Manafort, a person who advised pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians in the past, reiterated that Trump would never release his tax returns in response to questions about Trump’s financial dealings with Russian investors. It has been reported that Trump may be in debt to Russian lenders due to his inability to obtain credit through American banks.
Reporters and pundits were aghast at the site of Trump casually calling for a geopolitical rival of the United States to cyber-invade this country in order to take down a political rival.
Trump: Russia please hack into Hillary email or fbi storage centers
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 27, 2016
This Trump press conference is basically a plea for the media to please attack Hillary Clinton. Good for the journos, sticking with Russia.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 27, 2016
Trump denies Russia ties, but says Russians may have HRC private emails: “I hope they do.” Hoping for foreign intervention in US election?
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) July 27, 2016
Trump encourages Russia to hack more Democratic emails. #patriot
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) July 27, 2016
Again: Ryan should endorse Clinton. Pence should resign from the ticket. They won’t. No honor, no decency. https://t.co/iRcg72eRWm
— Dan Kennedy (@dankennedy_nu) July 27, 2016
At first, I was reading my Twitter and I thought I was hallucinating from lack of sleep, but no, I wasn’t. https://t.co/cYmwCrcqT7
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) July 27, 2016
Of course, this won’t make one lick of difference to his most ardent supporters. They love Trump because he represents their white resentment, will get rid of all the brown people, is an authoritarian strongman who will keep them safe and will Make America Great Again!
