Hillary Clinton on 2018 mid-term election meddling: ‘The Russians are coming’

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Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says that the Russians are going to try and manipulate US elections again regardless of whether President Donald Trump decides to address the issue or not.

Ms Clinton, noting her previous role as secretary of State, spoke out after America’s National Security Agency director, Adm Michael S Rogers, told told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had not been authorised to change overall strategy on America’s efforts to curb Russian election meddling.

“I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming,” Ms Clinton said. “Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act. Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?”

Mr Rogers had told the Senate committee that the US intelligence community is doing what it can, but that he does not think that it is enough to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to think twice about attacking American electoral systems.

“We’re taking steps, but we’re probably not doing enough,” Mr Rogers said. He added that Mr Putin “has clearly come to the conclusion that ‘there’s little price to pay here and therefore I can continue this activity.’”

“If we don’t change the dynamic here, this is going continue,” he continued.

Mr Trump has caught criticism for the way he discusses Russian meddling, frequently undermining the message from the intelligence community on the issue. While Trump allies say that the President has publicly recognised that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, his critics note that the President has frequently categorised the special counsel investigating the matter as a “witch hunt”.

The President’s campaign is a point of interest in that investigation, and several former members of his team have been charged with alleged crimes discovered during the investigation.

Several members of the Trump administration have also been contacted for interviews by the investigators, including Mr Trump himself, though it is not clear if anyone in Mr Trump’s campaign has been connected to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election in a criminal way.