Donald Trump's effort to throw Hillary Clinton off balance by saying Russia might be in possession of thousands of her deleted emails had an unexpected effect this week, after Clinton's team used it as an opening to lob their own national security arguments against Trump.
It was a bold move for Clinton, as the scandal surrounding her use of a personal email system when she led the State Department has caused her several headaches, and has led to polls showing voters' trust in her has eroded. Still, her team gambled that they could use Trump's argument to try turning the tables on the issue.
"It's smart, aggressive baseball," said Jim Manley, a Democratic operative in Washington. "Her email issue isn't going away anytime soon, no matter what, so they might as well go after Trump with all they have."
Trump opened the door when he said he hoped Russia might have thousands of Clinton's emails, and that he hoped Russia would return them to the U.S. so voters can see what she was trying to hide. Instead of ignoring the barb, Clinton's team fired back that Trump was essentially inviting Russia to hack into U.S. computers, something that could be seen as an attempt to influence the outcome of an election.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta upped the ante on Wednesday when he said Trump should have to provide special assurances that he won't leak the classified intelligence that he and Clinton will soon have access to as the nominees of their parties.
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04.24.2024