According to the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton, and most of the pundits of the mainstream media, Donald Trump did it again and spoke before thinking.
In the midst of the Democratic National Convention, Trump broke protocol and held a news conference, the day after the President verbally passed the crown to Clinton.
Some called it unpresidential but radio personality, Rush Limbaugh called it brilliant. “I have never seen a Republican presidential nominee even get involved in the Democrat convention,” he said. “My experience is that the playbook in the professional, insider world of politics is that when one party is having its convention, the other party goes silent.”
During that hour-long news conference, Trump was asked about the last thing Democrats wanted in the news cycle during their convention, Clinton’s private email server controversy.
More than one reporter wanted Trump’s view on allegations that the Russian government is behind the hacked and leaked DNC emails. That opened the door for Trump to call attention to the over 30,000 emails deleted from that private server.
“If it is Russia,” said Trump. “it’s really bad … Because it shows how little respect they have for our country. When they would hack into a major party and get everything. But it would be interesting to see. I will tell you this. Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Enter the DNC and the national media to jump on that comment to spin a narrative that Trump had invited a foreign power to commit espionage implying Putin and Trump are in collusion with each other somehow. A top Democratic policy advisor said it was the first time a major presidential candidate had actively encouraged such a tactic against a political opponent.
But Limbaugh and a notable Republican who has no love for Donald Trump, Charles Krauthammer said Trump’s comments served as a clever trap that Hillary fell into.
Speaking on FOX News Special Report, Krauthammer said, “I do think there was something about his reference to Russia which whether planned or not is extremely clever … set a trap that the Clinton campaign fell right into.”
He continued by noting that the Clinton campaign accuses Trump of inviting a foreign power to invade U.S. national security. Krauthammer pointed out the inconsistency of Clinton first claiming none of the emails in question contained no classified information and that all most had been deleted.
He said, “So the Clinton campaign ends up admitting that perhaps there really is work-related if not classified stuff on the emails which she deleted, which I think would be the grounds for a charge of obstruction. The fact is that it leaves the Clinton campaign in a complete contradiction. If these are just private emails, then there is nothing to be concerned about. There is no espionage, there is no danger to national security, they will discover her yoga lesson schedule.”
On a week when CNN and others were intent on celebrating Hillary’s moment of breaking the glass ceiling, they were instead talking about those “damn emails” again. To make matters worse they sought to divert the discussion by painting Trump as some kind of dangerous traitor.
In another hacked email story, Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager claimed Russian hackers stole thousands of emails from the DNC to help Donald Trump in the election. This without offering any proof or naming even one source.
Rather than ignore the story or claim it to be an obvious attempt to distract from Clinton’s moment in the sun, Democrats fell into the same trap Trump’s Republican opponents did during the primaries – misdirection.
What appeared to be a major gaffe by Trump was instead an invitation for the media to keep on talking about a scandal that Clinton desperately wants to be behind her.
While the DNC wants the conversation to be all about Hillary, they certainly never intended it to be like this. All day last Wednesday, with President Obama and V.P. nominee Tim Kaine set to speak that night, the topic of choice that day was emails.
Those on both side of the aisle who say that Trump made a mistake with comments about Hillary Clinton, emails, and Russia are the ones who are mistaken. Once again, Trump proved he knows how to direct the conversation.
~American Liberty Report
