The New York Times has obtained audio of Hillary Clinton speaking to a group of campaign donors Thursday night, where she finally broke her silence about the supposed Russian hacking of the 2016 election. Instead of taking Kellyanne Conway's advice and putting the controversy to bed to allow for a peaceful transition of power to the Trump White House, she stoked the flames of the allegations.
In her remarks, Clinton said that Vladimir Putin was out to get her because he "blamed" her for the outrage in his own country. There was "no mistake," she said, that Russia intervened in our democratic process to hurt her campaign.
“Make no mistake, as the press is finally catching up to the facts, which we desperately tried to present to them during the last months of the campaign,” Mrs. Clinton told the group, which collectively poured roughly $1 billion into her effort. “This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”
President Obama is of the same mind. He pledged to retaliate against Russia, either online or in the form of sanctions.
President-elect Donald Trump and his surrogates are not so convinced that they have Russia to thank for his win. After all, it's not Russia's fault that Clinton "ignored" states like Michigan during the campaign, Conway said on Fox News Friday morning.
