Republican nominee Donald Trump says allegations about Russia hacking the Democratic National Committee email system are a “deflection.”
“They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted because you’d see some beauties there,” Trump jabbed of Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails, suggesting Russia may be able to recover them during his press conference in Florida on Wednesday morning.
The New Yorker also commented on one of Clinton’s campaign staffers who “said [it] could be Trump,” that orchestrated the hacking.
“I’d love to have that power. Russia has no respect for our country,” Trump stated. “It shows how weak we are.”
“Assuming it’s Russia or China… it’s a total sign of disrespect for our country,” the billionaire added. “Putin and the leaders throughout the world have no respect for our country.”
He said the allegation that he had something to do with the email hacking is “one of the most far-fetched I’ve ever heard.”
“I never met Putin…He said one nice thing about me,” Trump stressed on questions of whether he has had any dealings with Russia. “There’s nothing in Russia.”
The Republican nominee said it isn’t about who did the hacking, but rather, “it was about the things that were said in those emails.”
“Talking about Jewish, talking about race, talking about atheist — trying to pin labels on people,” Trump recalled, referencing former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s emails about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “What was said was a disgrace.”
Trump also alleged that Clinton knew that Wasserman-Schultz was helping her campaign against Sanders. “She knew everything.”