In a 42-minute press conference in Florida today, Republican nominee and besuited Chucky doll Donald Trump criticized the media for what he sees as favorable coverage of Clinton. He then yelled directly at Russia to hack her shit.
It’s hard to believe that Trump would do such a thing publicly, and that this is not, in fact, an election-induced malarial fever dream finally taking hold of my brain. But no, somehow this is real:
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said. “I think you will probably be mightily rewarded by our press.”
Here’s a video of it, because I’m still emotionally grappling with the fact that just happened:
Trump has been on the defensive lately because of new questions, essentially, about his repeated praise of Vladimir Putin and his seemingly cozy relationship with Russia overall. The embarrassing DNC hacks, supposedly the work of a Romanian hacker, look increasingly likely to have been the work of the Russian government, although that’s publicly unconfirmed.
So anyway, what better time for Donald Trump to first insist he has no relationship with Putin, and then yell at Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails?
“I’m not gonna tell Putin what to do, why should I tell Putin what to do?” Trump said, adding that the hackers themselves aren’t important: “It’s not even about Russia or China or whoever it is that’s doing the hacking. It’s about the things they said in those emails. They were terrible things.”
He also said that Clinton knew about everything in those emails: “Believe me, as sure as you’re sitting there, Hillary Clinton knew about it,” he said.“She knew everything. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could not breathe without speaking and getting approval from Hillary Clinton.”
When an NBC reporter asked if Trump thought it was really a good idea to encourage Russia to hack Clinton, he told her to “be quiet.”
Did we decommission all the fallout shelters or are there still some around?
Update, 12:35 p.m.:
Hillary Clinton’s campaign sounds genuinely furious:
Statement from Jake Sullivan on Donald Trump’s Press Conference Today
After Donald Trump’s comments at his press conference today Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan released the following statement:
“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. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.”