As we grapple with the resurrection of Clinton fever now that her reduced-price tell-all has hit the shelves, Hillary has yet another announcement: she thinks Trump’s people colluded with the Russians to kill her presidential bid. Does she have evidence? No. Is she going to expound upon that claim? No (via USA Today) [emphasis mine]:
Hillary Clinton says she is now convinced that associates of candidate Donald Trump helped Russia meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
"There certainly was communication and there certainly was an understanding of some sort," Clinton told USA TODAY Monday in a far-ranging interview about her new book, What Happened. "Because there's no doubt in my mind that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wanted me to lose and wanted Trump to win. And there's no doubt in my mind that there are a tangle of financial relationships between Trump and his operation with Russian money. And there's no doubt in my mind that the Trump campaign and other associates have worked really hard to hide their connections with Russians."
Does she believe there was collusion by Trump associates?
"I'm convinced of it," she said, though she stopped short of repeating that explosive word. "I happen to believe in the rule of law and believe in evidence, so I'm not going to go off and make all kinds of outrageous claims. But if you look at what we've learned since (the election), it's pretty troubling."
Uh, lady that’s exactly what you just did. When it comes to writing a book about how you literally botched one of the most winnable elections in recent memory, maybe a chapter on the lack of self-awareness should have been bookmarked. I think Trump’s people worked with the Russians to meddle in our election in order to get him elected. I just know. So, was there collusion?
“I’m not going to go off and make all kinds of outrageous claims.” Talk about whiplash.
And yes, Clinton peddled conspiracy theories about the Russians, though did not specifically say (it was heavily insinuated) that Trump associates were involved. At the Recode conference in California last June, she said that the Russians must’ve had help in weaponizing the information that was disseminated on Wikileaks. Even MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell had to say there was no evidence for this claim. Yet, right on cue, the Democrats began throwing this baseless theory around that Americans helped the Russians coordinate the distribution of the material posted on Wikileaks during the campaign.
The only thing that has been somewhat revealing is that Donald Trump, Jr. met with a Russian lawyer that was arranged by the publicist of the pop star, who is said to be Russia’s wannabe version of Enrique Iglesias, who can only get gigs at the shopping mall his father owns. The troubling part of the email chain is when the publicist said that this dirt they allegedly have on Clinton is part of the government’s effort to help Trump, Jr.’s father win the election. In the end, no information was discussed. In fact, it was an absolute waste of time. The 2016 campaign wasn’t even discussed. Maybe Trump, Jr. was more collusion curious, but either way it was a terrible lapse in judgment. The Russians did reach out to other associates, but they declined to meet with them because a) they weren’t interested; and b) it was outside of normal protocols.
So far, there has been no smoking gun and this story has been so beaten to death with useless updates that it’s rarely in the news cycle, even prior to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The sooner Hillary just recognizes that she’s a terrible candidate, the better it will be for herself, her family, and the rest of the country because with the exception of a select few, the whole nations wants Hillary to go away. Let it go, lady. You ran twice and you lost. Some people are just not meant to be president. Your number got called that’s all.