Hillary Clinton accused President Trump of betraying his oath of office by taking no action to deter foreign interference that may come in the 2020 election.
“The president hasn’t just refused to condemn a foreign power that attacked our democracy. He’s also failed to protect the country’s voting systems against future attacks. He betrays his oath every day,” the former secretary of state tweeted Thursday.
The pointed missive came after Trump admitted for the first time that Russia helped him get elected in 2016 against Clinton, before promptly backtracking. “I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected,” he said in a tweet.
Minutes later he flatly denied getting an assist from Russia. “No, Russia did not help me get elected,” he told reporters as he departed the White House to deliver a commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
The president hasn’t just refused to condemn a foreign power that attacked our democracy. He’s also failed to protect the country’s voting systems against future attacks. He betrays his oath every day.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 30, 2019
Special counsel Robert Mueller delivered a public statement on Wednesday about his 22-month-long investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which led to the indictments of a dozen Russian intelligence officials on charges of hacking Democrats during the campaign. He closed his roughly nine-minute address with a warning about future attempts to breach the integrity of U.S. elections.
“I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments — that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election,” Mueller said at the Justice Department. “That allegation deserves the attention of every American.”
Mueller was unable to establish criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also did not make a determination about whether Trump obstructed justice, and while Attorney General William Barr determined there was insufficient evidence, Democrats argue Mueller left the question open to them to investigate further.
Trump has been resistant to accept the intelligence community assessment that Russia meddled in the election to undermine Clinton’s campaign in favor of his and routinely derided Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt.” But his government has not been siting idly by to shield against foreign attacks.
In October a top Homeland Security Department official said his staff was “working around the clock” to prepare for America’s enemies launching cyberattacks during the home stretch of the midterm elections. Christopher Krebs, DHS undersecretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate, said he was feeling “a little nervous” because the U.S. government wasn’t yet aware of any effort to disrupt the 2018 elections, but his “paranoid disposition” meant he expected one. For hackers, he said, 2018 was just the “warm-up” for the “big game” in 2020.
Trump also signed an executive order in September creating a framework for imposing sanctions on foreigners who seek to influence U.S. elections.
