Clinton on Trump-Putin summit: Why hasn’t Trump ‘spoken up for our country’
Hillary Clinton blasted President Trump on Saturday over his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking why Trump “has not spoken up for our country.”
Clinton, speaking at OZY Fest in New York City, said that refusing to condemn Russian election interference “only empowers them and only enables them to continue destroying” the U.S. electoral process.
“The great mystery is why this president has not spoken up for our country, and we saw this most clearly in this recent meeting with Putin,” she said.
Clinton said that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election “is a direct attack on our democracy.”
“So this idea that somehow we are not sure where our own president stands is deeply disturbing,” she said. “And the best way to deal with that is to vote in November.”
Trump has faced widespread criticism over his handling of Russia over the past week, after he appeared to side with Putin’s denials of election interference during a joint press conference on Monday.
The president walked back his comments in a statement to reporters on Tuesday. He said he misspoke during the press conference and does accept the U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the election, adding “could be other people also.”
The former secretary of state also hit Trump for attempting to work with Putin, saying that “anybody that believes in freedom gets along with [Putin].”
And she called for Americans to “take back control over our government and our election systems” and end “this bitter and incredibly negative political atmosphere.”
“His attacks on our electoral system were intended to help Trump, but was also to create this divisiveness,” Clinton said, before calling for Americans to vote in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
Lawmakers have also called on Trump to reveal what he and Putin discussed during their nearly two hour-long private meeting on Monday, after the White House invited Putin to Washington, D.C., for a second summit this fall.
