In her latest tweet, Hillary Clinton encouraged President Trump to take the threat of Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections seriously.
‘I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming. Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act,’ she wrote Wednesday. ‘Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?’
The former Democratic nominee’s cautioning came on the heels of Adm. Mike Rogers, director of both the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, warning members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains undeterred.
Former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is again sounding the alarm about Russian interference, this time looking toward the November midterm elections
Hillary Clinton’s most recent tweet pointed to testimony Adm. Mike Rogers gave on Capitol Hill Tuesday where he revealed neither President Trump nor his defense secretary gave him new authority to tackle the Russia threat
‘I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there’s little price to pay and that therefore, “I can continue this activity,”‘ Rogers said, looking ahead to the next batch of elections in November of this year. ‘Clearly what we have done hasn’t been enough.’
‘If we don’t change the dynamic here, this is going to continue,’ Rogers also said.
Roger also informed lawmakers that neither President Trump, nor Defense Secretary James Mattis, has granted him additional authority to halt Russian efforts.
‘I’ve never been given any specific direction to take additional steps outside my authority. I have taken the steps within my authority, you know, trying to be a good, pro-active commander,’ Rogers said.
‘I have not been granted any additional authorities,’ he added.
In her tweet, Clinton shared a Washington Post article that chronicled Rogers’ testimony.
At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed back on Rogers’ assertions.
‘Nobody is denying him the authority,’ she told reporters. ‘I can tell you that we are taking a number of steps to prevent this and we are looking at a variety of other ways that we’re going to continue to implement over the coming weeks and months.’
On February 20, Trump made the bold claim that, ‘I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama.’
‘Just look at the facts,’ the president added.
Huckabee Sanders echoed that claim last week as well.
But a month before, Trump’s administration held off on imposing new sanctions on Russia, despite Congress passing a law that green-lit the move, legislation that was supposed to punish the country for its 2016 presidential election meddling.
Several weeks later, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians for the Kremlin’s antics.
Trump still asserts that the broader Russian probe, in which Mueller is looking for evidence of collusion between the Russians and the president’s campaign, is a ‘WITCH HUNT,’ as the president articulated Tuesday on Twitter.