Hillary Clinton defended her pledge to push for “open trade and open borders” in a 2013 speech to an Italian Bank by saying she was talking specifically about trade in energy, and then slamming Donald Trump for encouraging Russia’s interference in the presidential election.
“If you went on to read the rest of the sentence, I was talking about energy,” Clinton said Wednesday during the third and final presidential debate. “We trade more energy with our neighbors than we do with the rest of the world combined.”
In the speech, obtained illegally from the inbox of her campaign chairman and published earlier this month by WikiLeaks, Clinton called for a “hemispheric common market” with unrestricted movement among nations.
Clinton quickly deflected the question by saying the only reason the emails came to light is that Russia is working to disrupt the election. “What’s really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans,” she said.
“I actually think the most important question of this evening, Chris, is finally, will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this, and make it clear that he will not have the help of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in this election, that he rejects Russian espionage against Americans?” Clinton said to debate moderator Chris Wallace.
Trump rejected Clinton’s attempts to change the subject.
“That was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders,” he said. “If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.”
Clinton and her allies have accused Trump of harboring an affection for Putin. But her campaign has refused to address revelations uncovered by WikiLeaks, and has instead claimed the breach of internal emails was an attempt by the Russian government to tip the election to its preferred candidate, Trump.
The billionaire has, in turn, argued Putin demonstrated his ability to manipulate Clinton by rejecting the “Russian reset” policy she spearheaded as secretary of state.
“He has no respect for her,” Trump said of the Russian president.
“That’s because he’d rather have a puppet,” Clinton replied.
“You’re the puppet,” Trump said.
Clinton noted 17 government agencies had each concluded that Russia sponsored cyberattacks against the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee this year. She pushed Trump to condemn the attacks on the debate stage Wednesday evening.
“Of course I condemn,” Trump said. “I never met Putin, this is not my best friend.”
“Putin has outsmarted her and Obama at every single step of the way,” he added.
