In his press conference Wednesday morning, Trump once again diminished the culpability of Russia’s government for its apparent hacking and its efforts to destabilize U.S. democracy.
When asked about Russia’s hacking into the DNC and phishing of John Podesta, Trump deflected. He responded by referring to China’s hack of personal data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
When pressed a second time, Trump deflected again: “The Democratic National Committee was very open to be hacked,” he said. Later he granted, “the hacking’s bad, it shouldn’t be done, before going on about the content of the hacks, the material that made the Clinton campaign and the DNC look bad.”
When asked again, Trump said of the hacking, “They shouldn’t have done it.” These two minor scoldings may be the harshest words Trump has had for Russia since becoming a candidate. If he went further, with more details, more consistently, he may dispel some of the concerns about his odd ties to Putin.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
