JOHN Podesta is right, though he said it nicer than me. NOT MY pres drumpf/trump has to try to pull his head out of his ass and represent the American people at the g20 meetings in Hamburg. From +NPR and the Washington Post.....
John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
'Get A Grip': Clinton 2016 Chair Slams Trump Tweet That DNC Email Is The Talk Of G-20
Updated at 5:41 p.m. ET
President Trump tweeted some unexpected news Friday morning from the Group of 20 summit underway in Hamburg, Germany: "Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and CIA. Disgraceful!" Trump wrote.
There is a lot on the agenda at the global economic conference — including trade, climate and Trump's own meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin — so it came as a surprise that world leaders at the economic forum might be discussing Podesta, the man who served as Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman in 2016.
In fact, in a string of tweets in response to Trump, Podesta — mincing no words — seemed surprised, too. He ended with this thought: "Dude, get your head in the game. You're representing the US at the G20."
2/ Pulled in for a pit stop in E. Fairmont W. Va. to see that our whack job POTUS @realDonaldTrump is tweeting about me at the G20.
4/ Maybe you might try to find a way to mention that to President Putin.
6/ God only knows what you'll be raving about on twitter by the time we get to Utah.
Trump's account conflated a few details. Podesta's emails were indeed compromised by hackers connected to Russia's intelligence agencies, but they were not on the Democratic National Committee's server.
Plus, as Clinton's campaign chairman, Podesta was not involved with the DNC's decision not to turn over its hacked servers to federal investigators. And the CIA, which spies on foreign governments, is not investigating the cyber-intrusions during the 2016 campaign — that is the FBI.
But the CIA, like the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies, did conclude the hacking was the work of the Russian government, even if Trump continues to have his doubts.
Later on Friday, Podesta published an op-ed on the Washington Post's website. Podesta wrote "I had nothing to do with the Democratic National Committee. . . So there was no DNC server for me to refuse to give, and I was never asked for one."
Podesta's piece is headlined: "Why is Trump tweeting about me when he should be doing his job?"
CorrectionJuly 7, 2017
An earlier version of this story and headline incorrectly identified John Podesta as Hillary Clinton's campaign manager. In fact, Podesta was her campaign chairman for the 2016 presidential election
John Podesta, the chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, served as counselor to President Barack Obama and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
MOREHEAD, Ky.
Weaving through the mountains on a cross-country road trip with my wife, I was quite surprised to discover that — at least according to President Trump — I am the talk of the Group of 20 meeting.
Trump tweeted: “Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!”
Really? Everyone? I’ve been at my share of global summits, so I sort of doubt that. The world leaders certainly have more important topics to grapple with. To take one issue close to my heart: how to deal with the challenge of climate change now that the president has declared that the United States will be withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. Or how to deal with the leadership vacuum now that Trump has turned his back on our traditional allies in Europe and Asia.
On one level, the president’s tweet is so obviously wrong and so evidently self-serving that the temptation is simply to ignore it. But, because he is the president, his words warrant a response.
First, I had nothing to do with the Democratic National Committee — I chaired Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. So there was no DNC server for me to refuse to give and I was never asked for one. Second, the CIA has no role in domestic intelligence-gathering — in fact, it’s prohibited. The CIA would never ask anyone at the DNC for a server. Whether the FBI asked the DNC for access to a server, I don’t know, beyond what I’ve read.
What I do know is this, which is why I’m choosing to respond to Trump’s tweet: The Russians stole my emails. When they did that, they committed a crime. They also invaded my privacy, and the privacy of a multitude of friends, family and colleagues with whom I communicated. That, combined with vicious lies spread by the alt-right media such as the so-called Comet Ping Pong conspiracy, exposed them to potential harm, as was evidenced by the shooting at Comet. The crime the Russians committed, as the intelligence community has concluded, was for the purpose of helping Trump get elected president.
So the responsible thing for a U.S. president to do, in these circumstances, is to have the backbone to stand up against Russian interference in U.S. democracy — not to question, as Trump did on Thursday, the competence of our own intelligence community and to publicly doubt, once again, the conclusion that Russia was behind the hacking. Trump talks big on Twitter, but when he came face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, we heard him say what an honor it was to meet him. It has been reported that Trump asked Putin about the election hacking, giving Putin the chance to issue an obligatory denial, despite all the evidence gathered by the U.S. intelligence community. One can only hope that Trump made clear to Putin that the United States won’t tolerate continued Russian interference in elections, as we’ve seen in the United States, France and now in Germany and across Europe. (This is one conversation that it would be nice to have a tape of.)
As president, Trump is supposed to be doing his job representing the United States in a respectable fashion to make sure we maintain and enhance our standing around the world. Instead, he has his face glued to his phone. It’s really sad that the U.S. president can’t get his head in the game even at the G-20 summit of world leaders.
God only knows what our president will be tweeting by the time my wife and I get to Utah.
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