Indeed he didn’t. But as suggested above, Trump’s opponents will justify it to themselves to lie about him, that’s politics really. And this is a fairly minor lie or distortion about a rather stupid statement by Trump IMO by any reading.
It doesn’t make sense to interpret the statement as asking the Russians to hack (as in the future) because Clinton deleted the emails. The FBI with full access to everything couldn’t restore much, so how could hackers now? For hackers to have them they’d have had to hack them from Clinton’s non-secure personal server back before they were deleted.
Which is why I doubt the Democrats can make much net hay about this statement by Trump. You can’t talk about Trump and Russian hackers without reminding people that Clinton was ‘extremely careless’ protecting classified information…against hackers. And the Comey press conference, ‘extremely careless’ seems to have been the start of Clinton’s fall in the polls; a transient Trump convention bounce might have added onto that but doesn’t seem to be the whole story AFAICT.
Trump’s handlers are saying that he was “sarcastic”, and “tongue in cheek”.
If Trump sincerely invited Russia to look for (ie, hack) missing email on an American’s private server, he’s a traitor. If he was sarcastic, he’s an idiot.
Here’s what I think: He attempted to bring Hillary’s email problem back into the public eye by seriously inviting the Russians to hack for those emails, but in a sarcastic, Trumpian manner. That makes him a treacherous idiot.
Again, there’s no logic to the idea it was an invitation for a future hack. The emails were deleted, the FBI could not recover (many of) them with full access to everything. ‘Finding’ the emails if serious could only refer to hacks that already occurred, before the emails were deleted. IOW ‘Trump invites Russians to hack’ is made up, basically. I understand the need to distort the opponent’s statements ‘for the common good’ or at least that people on each side of politics convince themselves of it, but it’s still not actually what he said (‘I invite you to hack’) nor does it logically hold together as meaning that if taken seriously.
The statement calls attention to an apparently serious weakness of Clinton (her fall in the polls starting after the Comey press conference and continuing up to now could be a coincidence and caused by other things, and could change back, but I believe it’s largely related, NBC/WSJ poll internal seems to say this). It’s also drawing the ‘fainting couch’ response by the media that often blunts the effect of potential missteps by Trump: they can get so wound up about what he says they end up looking as silly as he does. This is a case IMO.
I don’t think anyone including Trump knows exactly how much is method and how much is madness in his technique. Idiot savant maybe, not outright idiot.
I actually think there’s something to Czarcasm’s Gump reference. Forrest wasn’t an idiot savant, he was an idiot who fell ass-backwards into the history books. Trump’s doing the same.
IMHO – there is no filter between Trump’s brain and his mouth. The concept that there are some things that a President or a presidential candidate just shouldn’t say, or that sarcasm is not a good look on a statesman, is completely alien to him.
The Dems should actually repeat the Russian puppet argument extensively. Do I think Trump is a Russian puppet? In my heart of hearts, no, I think he just has a stupid opinion on Russia, I think Russia got caught hacking the DNC (it was known over a month ago), and they’ve decided to do a data dump posing as a “hacktivist” group called Guccifer 2.0. Doing so gives them some veneer of “this wasn’t Russia this was a hacktivist group”, and also push comes to shove they would prefer Donald over Hillary. I suspect the Russian long game would’ve still preferred the hack go unnoticed so they could continue collecting intel (particularly if Hillary wins, there could be national-security relevant communications that go through DNC/campaign emails during the transition, that Russia would’ve liked to have seen.)
But, here’s the thing, for about 24 god damn years the GOP has happily and enthusiastically repeated so many nonsensical, conspiracist bullshit about the Clintons (both Bill/Hillary jointly and individually) that’s it’s basically time for the Dems to play the same game. I don’t give a fuck if Trump is really a Russian puppet, I think we should vigorously say he is–there’s more than enough evidence, by the “conspiracy theory” standards, to make the claim. More so than there is that Vince Foster was murdered–an insane CT that still has breath to this day.
Inviting Russia to pour through already hacked emails, by them or by someone else, is still encouraging hacking, in the same way that viewing child pornography is encouraging child exploitation.
In any case, you could read Trump’s pleading as suggesting that Russia hack others. The fact that the emails were deleted from the server given to the FBI doesn’t mean they don’t exist anywhere. One place they likely exist is on the recipients and senders servers.
I agree Martin Hyde. While some may be willing to watch the government burn or just spurn Hillary by electing Trump, I figure at least a good few of them aren’t willing to become Russia’s bitch in the process. There’s a whole pile of arrows pointing to Trump’s weakness on this.
You are trying to interpret Trump’s comments based on the assumption he’s being logical, which is itself illogical. Trump’s words are meant to evoke emotions; he doesn’t even try to be logical.
This nightmare scenario popped into my head last night:
What if today’s polls hold; Clinton doesn’t get a convention bounce; there are more stupid and embarrassing email revelations…and we head into November with Trump in the lead.
Hillary does the patriotic thing and sacrifices her ambition for the good of the country. She announces that since obviously her personal negative ratings are leading the nation into a disastrous choice, she would rather retire from politics than see Trump as President. Therefore, she is withdrawing her candidacy. (What happens then and how that works, god knows).
As a fellow introvert (see user name), I can’t imagine caring about anything enough to make phone calls to strangersshudder. So good ya as well Snoe.
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the last week where people I know are “coming out” as Trump voters. Seemingly reasonable people who agree that he’s a terrible candidate, but for some reason feel Hillary must be stopped at all costs. I guess they’ve secretly felt that way for a while but now feel they may as well be open about it. If it becomes a common theme, I see things going poorly the next few months. Seriously people, this is way beyond the “It’s not funny anymore” stage.
“Some reason” = 25 years of utter bullshit conspiracy theory nonsense that has caught hold and won’t go away, like herpes. There are people out there who think she murdered Vince Foster, for crissakes.
Yes, I’ve noticed that too. Six months ago my boss said he would leave the Republican Party if Trump was the nominee. Yesterday he announced that he’s voting for Trump. :smack:
The Hillary hate is too strong for most Republicans. But I think some of them can be convinced to stay home or write someone in.
I guess I’m missing the panic because people keep finding Republicans who are voting for Trump and/or can’t understand why the latest comment is never “the one!”
The old saw is correct: 40% of the country identify as Republican. Voting for Hillary literally repudiates the last 20+ years of their political identity and it is difficult to change like that. Yes, there is “Hillary hate” but there is “I’ve been R for all my life… what else am I supposed to do?” working on the traditional Republican electorate.
No matter what he says that shocks one, Trump is not going to crater below the high 30s nationally unless it is proven he is actually in pay of the Russians… in which case, 15% of the country will still vote for the guy.
Bill Clinton won with, what, 43% of the vote in 1992? Odd that in 2016 people are despairing his wife isn’t winning 60/40.
My wife’s friend-- a college-educated woman married to a doctor who espouses left of center policy beliefs-- asked my wife who she was voting for the other day.
My wife said “Hillary, how is this even a question?”
Her friend said, “She’s just done so much questionable stuff.”
“Like what?” my wife asks.
“Well, she gave away classified information to other countries, right?”