Clinton says Trump campaign likely guided Russians before U.S. election

[webfact]

Clinton says Trump campaign likely guided Russians before U.S. election

By David Ingram

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes part in the Women for Women International Luncheon in New York City, New York, U.S., May 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

 

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she suspects President Donald Trump's campaign gave guidance to Russian government propaganda efforts during last year's U.S. presidential campaign, levelling her most serious charge yet against the person who defeated her.

 

The former Democratic presidential candidate, appearing at a tech conference near Los Angeles, said propaganda spread on sites such as Facebook helped cost her the election, and she urged Silicon Valley firms to move faster to stop false stories.

 

Trump has said that there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia.

 

Echoing assessments of U.S. intelligence agencies, Clinton said the Russian government wanted to spread disinformation about her. But she added they "could not have known how best to weaponise that information unless they had been guided."

 

"Guided by Americans?" asked Walt Mossberg, a technology journalist interviewing Clinton on stage.

 

"Guided by Americans and guided by people who have polling and data," Clinton responded.

 

She was pressed by another journalist on stage, Kara Swisher, who asked: "But you're leaning Trump?"

 

"Yes, I think it's pretty hard not to," Clinton said. She said there had been a "marriage" of people who spread false stories with Republicans who had detailed voter data.

 

It appeared to be the first time Clinton had accused Trump of collusion with Russians. Earlier this month, she blamed Russian hackers and then-FBI Director James Comey for costing her the election.

 

The White House on Wednesday referred questions about Russia to Trump's outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz. He could not immediately be reached.

 

Later in her appearance on Wednesday, Clinton slammed Trump's ability to create distractions using Twitter. "It's the circus, right? It's what a classic authoritarian does," she said.

 

Trump's administration has been dogged in its first months by allegations his associates had inappropriate contacts with Russian government officials. A special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, was appointed to lead an investigation after Trump fired Comey. Moscow has denied meddling in the U.S. election.

 

'HURRY UP'

 

Clinton mentioned Facebook by name, saying the social media network was flooded with false information about her and that people were understandably misled. She said she would like to see Facebook curate its network more aggressively.

 

"I have a lot of sympathy at this point... for people trying to make these decisions. I would just urge them to hurry up," she said.

 

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in November it was "crazy" to think that fake news on the site had influenced the election. Beginning in December, Facebook began introducing tools to try to prevent fake news stories from spreading.

 

Clinton said that in targeting voters online, she was at a disadvantage to Trump because the Republican Party provided him with an extensive database, through an organisation called the Data Trust, that Democrats did not have.

 

"I inherited nothing from the Democratic Party. I mean, it was bankrupt. It was on the verge of insolvency," Clinton said. "Its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong. I had to inject money into it, the DNC, to keep it going."

 

(Reporting by David Ingram; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Andrew Hay and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-01

[friendofthai]

People outside the US are very interested in what all those democrats say every day to keep the US society hot. We all know that the dems just want to win the elections they have lost. What can they say? They can only make endless unsubstantiated suggestions that they are sure - Trump is a soviet spy. And of course - proof will be always too secret to be presented to the public. The only question is - when the US society become tired of this media bullshit. The world is already tired of it.

 

[bartender100]

Putin must read these stories and laugh out loud, now the Russians are influencing the UK elections, what a load of ********* 

[darksidedog]

I am going to disagree with the friendofthai post. Firstly, I am tired of hearing that Democrats spout this and that because they lost the election. Stupid comment, the election is gone, no amount of wailing will change that. I am not saying Trump is a spy, but the evidence strongly suggests someone in the Trump camp was. And that proof is coming into the public domain, so I don't think it is too secret. Last question, when will people become tired if it? When the truth is known and revealed and not before.

The question of if, or to what extent the Russians were involved in the elections, needs to be known, if for no other reason than to stop them doing it again.

[Rob13]

Whether she's right or wrong, her harping about it only makes her out to be the sore loser she is.

[inactiveposter]

She's clearly delusional and unwilling to own up to the fact that she was a horrible candidate. The DNC backed her to the detriment of Bernie Sanders. She refers to the email scandal as a "nothingburger." She needs to go away.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[Luckysilk]

Hilarious who's she's blamed so far for losing the election.

 

Notice she hasn't mentioned Bill or Monica or Chelsea.

 

I like the one "everyone who assumed she'd win - the Madame President brigade lol

 

• The FBI 
• James Comey, then FBI director 
• The Russians
• Vladimir Putin 
• 'Anti-American forces' 
• Low information voters
• Everyone who assumed she'd win
• Bad polling numbers 
• Obama for winning two terms
• People wanting change 
• Misogynists
• Suburban women
• The New York Times 
• Television executives
• Cable news 
• Netflix 
• Democrats not making the right documentaries 
• Facebook 
• Twitter
• Wikileaks
• Fake news
• 'Content farms in Macedonia'
• The Republican Party
• The Democratic Party

[helpisgood]

For Hillary Clinton, the buck stops somewhere else.  That's not exactly leadership material.  

 

I just saw and like Lucysilk's post.  Yes, Clinton wanted to be in charge without the responsibility.

 

 

[mtls2005]

Not to belabor the point but she did garner 65,853,516 total votes.

 

Other candidates got about 7,132,020 votes

 

While Trump got 62,984,825 votes.

 

So ~ 10 millions Americans voted for a candidate other than Trump.

 

The "election" was "decided" by low turnout (~ 55%) and as few as 77,000 votes in four key states.

 

It was relatively simple to both suppress votes, and influence negative voting. What Boris (Epshteyn), Jared, the crews at Cambride Anaytica and Giles-Parscale, with the help of the Russians (and Facebook of course, unwittingly, much to Mark Zuckerberg's subsequent horror) was pretty amazing. Some of them were bragging about it, if ever so briefly right after the election.

 

The fact that Comey now admits he KNEW a critical piece of information relevant to the Clinton email kerfuffle was fake and from Russia, seems to support Ms. Clinton's allegations.

 

Comey's actions based on what he knew was Russian disinformation offer a stark example of the way Russian interference impacted the decisions of the highest-level US officials during the 2016 campaign.

 

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that this Russian intelligence was unreliable. US officials now tell CNN that Comey and FBI officials actually knew early on that this intelligence was indeed false.

 

 

 

But please don't let "covfefe" influence your position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Juan B Tong]

"Not my fault"   Is she part Thai?

[Becker]

2 hours ago, friendofthai said:

People outside the US are very interested in what all those democrats say every day to keep the US society hot. We all know that the dems just want to win the elections they have lost. What can they say? They can only make endless unsubstantiated suggestions that they are sure - Trump is a soviet spy. And of course - proof will be always too secret to be presented to the public. The only question is - when the US society become tired of this media bullshit. The world is already tired of it.

 

I think the world is far more tired of the man-child than of HRC.

[kamahele]

1 hour ago, inactiveposter said:

She's clearly delusional and unwilling to own up to the fact that she was a horrible candidate. The DNC backed her to the detriment of Bernie Sanders. She refers to the email scandal as a "nothingburger." She needs to go away.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

If she was such a horrible candidate, how did she end up with 3 million more votes than the winning candidate? Are you going with Trump's claim that 3 million undocumented immigrants pushed her over the line to win the popular vote? Was she a perfect candidate? Not by any means but with the tampering by the Russians / Wikileaks and the Republicans dragging out the Benghazzi investigations through the election, it was stolen from her.

[Konaboy1]

be patient---the truth will come out eventually. The Democratic America has many factions at work. Including "Leakers"

and "whistlers" (subpoenas are flying now!)

HRC probably already knows.

[KarenBravo]

Hillary Clinton has about the same credibility as Donald Trump.

[YetAnother]

this is bordering on childish

[tonray]

As a progressive, I just want to say, will someone please tell Hilary (and Chelsea) Clinton to please just Shut the @##$ Up ! These ego whores are just feeding the Trump supporters and Trump's best chance for an 8 year run is Hilary out there every day blasting her big mouth off. Enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yardrunner]

3 hours ago, friendofthai said:

People outside the US are very interested in what all those democrats say every day to keep the US society hot. We all know that the dems just want to win the elections they have lost. What can they say? They can only make endless unsubstantiated suggestions that they are sure - Trump is a soviet spy. And of course - proof will be always too secret to be presented to the public. The only question is - when the US society become tired of this media bullshit. The world is already tired of it.

 

You may be tired of it but the world certainly isn't in the UK Trump is a laughing stock and his Russian links are seen as proof that he is not to be trusted, and the odds offered by bookmakers show that they don,t expect him to finish a first term as president

[Thaidream]

I agree that Hillary needs to keep quiet because the issue is not about her but whether Donald Trump and/or his minions collaborated with a foreign power- russia- to influence the American election.

If indeed there was direct collaboration by any member of the Trump campaign and Trump knew about it and ignored it or facilitated- he is guilty of treason and will be removed from power either by impeachment or the 25th amendment.

If he has nothing to hide he should welcome and co-operate with all investigation including those conducted by the media. Let's not forget that it was the American Media that exposed the abuses of President Richard Nixon and forced his resignation. The old adage 'What did he know and when did he know it" is still in play.

[mtls2005]

24 minutes ago, tonray said:

As a progressive, I just want to say, will someone please tell Hilary (and Chelsea) Clinton to please just Shut the @##$ Up ! These ego whores are just feeding the Trump supporters and Trump's best chance for an 8 year run is Hilary out there every day blasting her big mouth off. Enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Chelsea said that the loss was an unexpected blessing.

 

I would advise against mans-plaining to women that they should just shut up. It's just a bad idea, and relatively un-American. Best to let people handle their grief in their own way.

 

 

Hillary Clinton's loss was 'unexpected blessing' for the family, says daughter Chelsea Clinton

 

Chelsea Clinton revealed to "The View" that Hillary Clinton's presidential loss was actually an "unexpected blessing" for the family, because of "all the time we have been able to spend together."

 

"We spent lots of time with my children," Chelsea Clinton explained. "My son, Aidan, is 11 months old now -- and my daughter, Charlotte, is 2-and-a-half."

 

Chelsea Clinton joked that her mother coped with the loss with "a little chardonnay and a lot of Charlotte. Thankfully."

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clintons-loss-unexpected-blessing-family-daughter-chelsea/story?id=47746642

 

 

 

[sgracer]

those democrats should try fielding a less divisive figure next time.

 

sore losers.

[Baerboxer]

8 hours ago, darksidedog said:

I am going to disagree with the friendofthai post. Firstly, I am tired of hearing that Democrats spout this and that because they lost the election. Stupid comment, the election is gone, no amount of wailing will change that. I am not saying Trump is a spy, but the evidence strongly suggests someone in the Trump camp was. And that proof is coming into the public domain, so I don't think it is too secret. Last question, when will people become tired if it? When the truth is known and revealed and not before.

The question of if, or to what extent the Russians were involved in the elections, needs to be known, if for no other reason than to stop them doing it again.

 

If Hilary had won, would the truth about some of her 'skeletons" have come out, been pursued by newspapers, or continuously whined about by the Republicans? Would "suspicions and suggested maybes" have been given credibility?

 

Are you suggesting the US, under all administrations since WW1 never ever interfered or tried to influence other countries' elections? Or even took direct action on occasions?

 

Obama tried very hard to influence the outcome of the Brexit referendum with some pointed threats about Britain going to the back of US trade negotiation queues; losing it's positions of influence etc. Was that not interference? At whose behest - American "interests", Cameron, Merkel his close friend?

 

Hilary is coming across as a bitter old lady who was prepared to collude with the DNC to cheat Bernie and become candidate and then assumed she would walk it as was her right. She lied, was caught lying, and ran a poor campaign. But it's easier to blame others. She recently talked about impeachment and referenced Nixon, who wasn't, but ignored BJ Bill, her husband who was. 

 

She's now trying to claim all the information that came out about her unsavory past actions was Russian disinformation. But of course Bill meeting the AG on an airport runway, Libya, lies about Bosnia, cheating Bernie, and the issues around the family foundation were all just business as usual.

[funandsuninbangkok]

10 hours ago, tonray said:

As a progressive, I just want to say, will someone please tell Hilary (and Chelsea) Clinton to please just Shut the @##$ Up ! These ego whores are just feeding the Trump supporters and Trump's best chance for an 8 year run is Hilary out there every day blasting her big mouth off. Enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hilary! 4 more years!  We love you babe!

 

aint your fault. Everybody was mean to you!  Bad Donald! 

 

Get Chelsea and Bill out of thier boxes to do some speeches to!

 

Darn Ruskees!  Whay did they have to let everyone read our mail. Sorry Bernie! 

[landslide]

It is time for Hillary to fade into the sunset.  She lost the election to Donald Trump.  DONALD TRUMP!!!  She should hide her head in shame.

[rgraham]

She reinforces my decision each time she speaks.