In an interview with MSNBC broadcast on Friday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed President Donald Trump , The Hill reported.
“Donald Trump, unfortunately, models himself after Vladimir Putin,” Clinton said on Morning Joe .
Clinton commented on a report released earlier this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggesting that it shows members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to win the 2016 presidential election.
Clinton said that the document “paints a very clear and damning picture of the coordination between the Trump campaign and representatives of the Russian government and the interference that was directed by Putin from the Kremlin into our election.”
As reported by CBS News , the Senate’s 966-page report did not establish that members of Trump’s team conspired with Moscow, but it detailed Russia’s meddling in the presidential contest four years ago.
The upper chamber concluded that Moscow “engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence” the electoral process, pointing to supposed links between Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik.
The document alleged that Manafort provided Kilimnik and others with information, which allegedly helped the Russians meddle in the 2016 contest.
The bipartisan report also detailed the alleged coordination between WikiLeaks and longtime GOP operative Roger Stone, and concluded that the infamous Trump Tower meeting provided an opportunity for Russian officials to establish “unofficial channels” to conduct diplomacy.
Clinton said that Russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 election, arguing that the scope of its alleged efforts still remains unclear.
“What’s really troubling me now is even Trump’s intelligence officials now are saying it is still going on, it has not been stopped. We don’t even know yet the full extent of what they did in 2016 and what they are now doing in 2020.”
As Clinton pointed out, earlier this month, William Evanina , the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, warned that a number of foreign nations are seeking to influence the ongoing presidential race.
Evanina revealed that the Kremlin is backing the president, while China and Iran appear to be supportive of Joe Biden , the Democratic Party’s nominee.
China is reportedly hostile to the president because of the administration’s actions pertaining to 5G technology and the ongoing legal battle over the South China Sea. Iran apparently prefers Biden because they fear that Trump would seek regime change.
Trump has dismissed the intelligence community’s findings that the Kremlin is looking to “denigrate” Biden, stressing that he has been tough on Vladimir Putin and his allies.
