Story highlights
Recent cyber hacks have targeted state election boards and the DNC
Clinton issued an implicit threat to Russia that the US could hit back hard on cyber
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump disputed Monday that Russia may be behind a series of cyberattacks on election systems in the US and on the Democratic National Committee – a conclusion that US officials and lawmakers have come to.
The New York real estate mogul questioned Russian culpability in response to comments by Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton at the first presidential debate pointing the finger at Russia for recent breaches.
“She says, ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ ” Trump said. “It could be China. You don’t know who broke into the DNC.”
He continued, “It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”
But Clinton said there was “no doubt” that Russia has been responsible, an assessment top US security authorities and members of congressional intelligence committees support.
“Cyber security, cyber warfare will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next president,” Clinton warned at the event in Hempstead, New York.
Recent hacks have targeted state election boards and the Democratic National Committee. The FBI is currently investigating.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, and Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat on the House intelligence committee, recently released a statement saying that “based on briefings we have received, we have concluded that the Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to influence the US election.”
On Monday, Clinton also issued an implicit threat to Russia that the US could hit back hard and would do so if necessary.
“The United States has much greater capacity,” Clinton said, “and we are not going to sit idly by and permit state actors to go after our information, our private sector information or our public sector information.”
“We don’t want to have to use the kinds of tools we have, but we will defend the citizens of this country and the Russians need to understand that,” Clinton said.
Clinton added that Russia’s suspected hacking attempts on US voting systems were one reason she was “so shocked when Donald asked Putin to hack into Americans,” a reference to Trump’s comments during a July news conference.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” from the private server Clinton used while secretary of state for official business and was later destroyed, Trump said at that event.
Foreign policy issues were a relatively minor part of the debate, but each candidate tried to use national security issues to score points.
Trump claimed that Clinton has done such a bad job of managing global crises and Middle East conflict that she has been fighting ISIS her “whole life.”
The group that evolved into ISIS formed in 2006, while Clinton was born in 1947.
For her part, Clinton targeted Trump’s claims that the US should consider letting South Korea and Japan manage their own defense without American support.
“Words matter,” Clinton said. “Words matter when you run for president and they really matter when you are president, and I want to assure our allies in South Korea and Japan and elsewhere that we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them.”
In response, Trump qualified his position, saying, “as far as Japan is concerned, I want to help our allies, but we cannot be the policeman of the world.”
