Eight years ago, Donald Trump begged Russia to hack his then-opponent Hillary Clinton — and cheered when they actually did. Now, he’s at the receiving end of such a breach.
As journalist Judd Legum reports on his website Popular Information, it appears that Iran is still in the midst of an ongoing attack on Trump’s campaign that’s been going on for at least ten days.
Now that he’s being targeted instead of his opponent, in a striking display of hypocrisy, Trump is furious.
“That Trump is saying what is electorally convenient is not a surprise,” University of Pennsylvania professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who wrote a book about the 2016 hack, told the Associated Press. “This is not a person for whom inconsistency is a concern.”
Legum writes that he received a message earlier in the month from someone claiming to have leaked other internal information from the GOP nominee’s campaign to other media outlets in August, though none of them chose to publish the stolen goods.
Along with news outlets taking the high road regarding the leaked documents, it appears that Kamala Harris’ campaign did the same.
In a joint statement, the FBI and two other agencies related to national security and intelligence revealed that in June, Iranian hackers cold-contacted what was then President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign with unsolicited intel.
Though the agencies noted that “there is currently no information indicating [the Biden campaign] replied,” Trump is tarring Iran and the Harris campaign with the same feather in response.
In a statement seemingly circulated to several media outlets, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign last week said the FBI statement was “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror.”
That’s a pretty wild strategy given that in 2016, Trump straight-up invited Russia on-air to hack Clinton, which may well have contributed to her historic election loss.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” the perennial candidate said during a July news conference. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
As special counsel Robert Mueller subsequently revealed in his 2018 special report, Russian hackers did indeed end up targeting Clinton’s email accounts “on or around” the same day of Trump’s call over the airwaves.
And Trump was delighted that they did, saying “I love Wikileaks” after the site published the stolen materials.
With the shoe on the other foot, it’s clear that the third-time GOP presidential nominee is feeling the burn — and he should consider himself lucky that he’s not being treated the way his 2016 opponent was.
More on Trump: Trump Says He Can Save America, But He Can’t Even Think of an Idea to Save His Dying Startup
