Clinton says Trump is surrendering to Russia’s election meddling

CNN

Hillary Clinton faulted President Donald Trump for continuing to “ignore and surrender” to Russian meddling in a tweet on Wednesday, asking whether the Republican who defeated her in the 2016 election will “protect the country.”

The direct barb at Trump comes after US Cyber Command chief Adm. Mike Rogers told lawmakers on Tuesday that Trump has not granted him the authority to disrupt Russian election hacking operations where they originate.

“I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming,” Clinton wrote. “Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act. Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?”

The tweet linked to a story about Rogers’ testimony.

Clinton has long argued that Russian meddling in the 2016 election — which she lost to Trump despite winning the popular vote — helped sway the election toward the businessman-turned-politician.

In her 2017 book “What Happened,” Clinton devotes an entire chapter to Russia, maintaining that the country’s intervention in the election — currently being investigated by several congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller — led to Trump’s win.

She describes herself in the book as being consumed by the various news about Russia’s involvement in the election, writing that she follows “every twist and turn of the story,” often with consternation.

“I read everything I could get my hands on,” she wrote.

More recently, Clinton has opened the door to questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election if Russian interference is deeper than currently known.

Rogers’ testimony on Tuesday rankled Republican and Democrats alike who would like Russia to pay for their intervention in the 2016 election.

Rogers said Tuesday that it was fair to say the United States has “not opted to engage in some of the same behaviors we are seeing” with regard to Russia.

“It has not changed the calculus or the behavior on behalf of the Russians,” Rogers said about the US response to Russia’s cyberthreat to date. “They have not paid a price that is sufficient to change their behavior.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders pushed back against Rogers’ testimony, saying that she didn’t agree with the idea that he needed more authority.

“Nobody is denying him the authority” to take action, Sanders said. She later said that confronting Russia was not up to just one person or entity and promised details on more action would be shared in “coming weeks and months.”