Despite Robert Mueller’s finding that Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign benefited greatly from illegally hacked materials supplied by Russia, Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign refuses to say it won’t use such material again,reports.
This is in sharp contrast to Democrats aiming to unseat the president next year.
“In February,” the network says, “the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls all declared they would not take advantage of illegally obtained information. Most of those campaigns … have confirmed to NBC News that their positions remain unchanged.”
Candidates who were not yet in the running in February, including Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke, “have also committed to not using stolen or hacked information,” the network says, adding that former Vice President Joe Biden — who joined the race on Thursday — also has pledged not to use hacked material.
But the Trump campaign has not stated its position on the matter, and neither it nor the Republican National Committee “responded to repeated requests for comment,” NBC says.
“This week, [Democratic National Committee] Chairman Tom Perez asked his counterpart at the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, to commit to the same cybersecurity platform heading into 2020.
Perez wrote that the two parties “have a responsibility to protect the integrity of our democratic process. That’s why I urge you to join me in condemning the weaponization of stolen private data in our electoral process.”
There’s been no response — and NBC says the White House did not respond to questions about using hacked materal, noting that Trump himself has not pledged to stay away from such data.
“Notably,” says NBC, “Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani recently maintained that there was ‘nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.’”
