A caller who dialed into C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Monday thanked the Russians for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, asking “what would we do with Hillary in that White House?”
“I’ll try not to sound too awful, but I want to thank the Russians for interfering with our election to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming president,” a caller from Connecticut said.
{mosads}The caller added that Clinton “has got illusions of grandeur and so has her husband.”
Asked if she thought the Russians were the reason why President Trump won the 2016 election, the caller responded, “Yes, because the Russians interfered. I mean, what would we do with Hillary in that White House?”
The comments from the C-SPAN caller came the same day Trump drew widespread condemnation for his remarks at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their summit in Helsinki.
Trump refused to denounce Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, pointing to Putin’s denials. “I don’t see any reason why it would be,” he said.
Trump attempted to walk back those comments on Tuesday by saying he misspoke. He said he agreed with the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election, but also said that “other people” could have been involved.
“The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’ ” Trump said while reading from a prepared statement at the White House. “Sort of a double negative. So you can put that in, and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”
C-SPAN regularly allows callers to ask questions or share views during shows.
That has led to some memorable exchanges. In December 2014, Brothers Brad and Dallas Woodhouse, on opposite ends of the political spectrum, received a call from their mother while on C-SPAN after the two had fought on air.